QUAN LI, PhD, is Director of the Organic Synthesis and Advanced Materials Laboratory of the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, where he is also Adjunct Professor in the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program. He has directed research projects supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), U.S. Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (DoD MURI), U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and U.S. National Science Foundation, among other funding institutions.

• Preface viiContributors ix1 Nature-Inspired Stimuli-Responsive Self-Folding Materials 1Leonid Ionov2 Stimuli-Responsive Nanostructures from Self-Assembly of Rigid–Flexible Block Molecules 17Yongju Kim, Taehoon Kim, and Myongsoo Lee3 Stimuli-Directed Alignment Control of Semiconducting Discotic Liquid Crystalline Nanostructures 55Hari Krishna Bisoyi and Quan Li4 Anion-Driven Supramolecular Self-Assembled Materials 115Hiromitsu Maeda5 Photoresponsive Cholesteric Liquid Crystals 141Yannian Li and Quan Li6 Electric- and Light-Responsive Bent-Core Liquid Crystals: From Molecular Architecture and Supramolecular Nanostructures to Applications 189Yongqiang Zhang7 Photomechanical Liquid Crystalline Polymers:Motion in Response to Light 233Haifeng Yu and Quan Li8 Responsive Nanoporous Silica Colloidal Films and Membranes 265Amir Khabibullin and Ilya Zharov9 Stimuli-Responsive Smart Organic Hybrid Metal Nanoparticles 293Chenming Xue and Quan Li10 Biologically Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels 335Akifumi Kawamura and Takashi Miyata11 Biomimetic Self-Oscillating Polymer Gels 363Ryo Yoshida12 Stimuli-Responsive Surfaces in Biomedical Applications 377Alice Pranzetti, Jon A. Preece, and Paula M. Mendes13 Stimuli-Responsive Conjugated Polymers: From Electronic Noses to Artificial Muscles 423Astha Malhotra, Matthew McInnis, Jordan Anderson, and Lei ZhaiIndex 471

“From this book it becomes clear that the potential of stimuli-responsive materials is enormous. It is a superb guide to the subject, and I enthusiastically recommend reading it.”  (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed, 1 October 2014)