Smart polymer brushes and their emerging applications

Polymer brushes with stimuli-responsive properties, also known as smart polymer brushes (SPBs), have attracted substantial research interest in the past few years because they offer a wealth of opportunities to design responsive materials triggered by external stimuli, and have a number of applications in many areas in science and technology. Changing the length, chemical composition, architecture, and topology of the chains allows a change in response mechanisms and rates. This review introduces some key strategies for preparing polymer brushes and discusses various smart polymer brush surfaces and the recent developments on route to application. Current and future challenges in this field of smart polymer brushes are addressed.