A novel artificial muscle material based on an acrylic acid/acrylamide hydrogel blended with a conductive polypyrrole/carbon black composite was prepared. The material was optimized in terms of its electroactuation response by varying the acrylic acid content, the blending concentration of the conductive composite, and the intensity of the electric field. The artificial muscle material showed a fast and reversible electroactuation when a low potential

Forgetting to take medicine would not be a problem if it were released internally when your body signaled a need for it. Advances in sensors, implants, telemetry, and microfabrication are leading us in that direction. Sapna K. Deo, Elissavet A. Moschou, Serban F. Peteu, Leonidas G. Bachas, and Sylvia Daunert at the University of Kentucky; Patricia E. Eisenhardt at ChipRx; and Marc J. Madou at the University of California - Irvine describe how personal

We have developed intelligent polymerized crystalline colloidal array (IPCCA) chemical-sensing materials for detection of Pb2+ in high ionic-strength environments such as body fluids with a detection limit of

The article reviews smart materials configured for actuation, artificial channels, and pore sensing. The electroactive polymers (EAPs, also referred to as inherently conductive polymers) are outlined with polypyrrole (PPy) as the main example. Next, the PPy nanofabrication by template-synthesis is briefly outlined. This mini-review concludes with several recently reported functionalized nanotube membranes as examples of artificial membrane-supported