Functional dyes offer fascinating properties in response to external stimuli and enable unique stimuli-responsive functions in materials by chemical incorporation into polymers. In this review, we highlight our recent studies conducted in the last half decade on stimuli-responsive smart polymers and polymeric materials offering, for example, switchable adhesion, mechanical actuation, and chemical sensing based on functional dyes that are chemically incorporated into the structures, with a particular focus on the stimuli of light, force, electric fields, and chemicals including water.
- Keiichi Imato
- Yousuke Ooyama