Smart Hydrogel Functional Materials comprehensively and systematically describes our current understanding of smart or intelligent hydrogel functional materials with environmental stimuli-responsive functions. The contents range from hydrogels (including hydrogel-functionalized membranes) to microgels (including hydrogel-functionalized microcapsules) with various response properties, such as thermo-response, pH-response, pH-/thermo-dual-response, glucose-response, ethanol-response, ion-recognition, molecular-recognition, and so on. Most of the contents in this book represent the fresh achievements of the authors' group on smart hydrogel functional materials. While all chapters can be read as stand-alone papers, together they clearly describe the design concepts, fabrication strategies and methods, microstructures and performances of smart hydrogel functional materials. Vivid schematics and illustrations throughout the book enhance the accessibility of the theory and technologies involved.

This is an ideal reference book for a broad general readership including chemists, materials researchers, chemical engineers, pharmaceutical scientists and biomedical researchers, who are interested in designing and fabricating smart hydrogel functional materials for various application purposes.

Dr. Liang-Yin Chu is a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, China. He is a Distinguished Young Scholar of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a Distinguished Professor of the "Chang Jiang Scholars Program" of the Ministry of Education of China.

Part I Thermo-Responsive Hydrogel Functional Materials

Structure-Function Relationship of Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels
Preparation and Properties of Monodisperse Thermo-Responsive Microgels
Flow and Aggregation Characteristics of Thermo-Responsive Microgels During Phase Transition
Polyphenol-Induced Phase Transition of Thermo-Responsive Hydrogels
Functional Membranes with Thermo-Responsive Hydrogel Gates
Functional Microcapsules with Thermo-Responsive Hydrogel Shells

Part II pH-Responsive Hydrogel Functional Materials

Preparation and Properties of Monodisperse pH-Responsive Microgels
pH-Responsive Membranes and Microcapsules for Controlled Release

Part III Thermo-/pH-Dual-Responsive Hydrogel Functional Materials

Thermo-/pH-Dual-Responsive Hydrogels with Rapid Response Properties

Part IV Alcohol-Responsive Hydrogel Functional Materials

Smart Functional Membranes with Alcohol-Responsive Characteristics

Part V Glucose-Responsive Hydrogel Functional Materials

Hydrogels with Rapid Response to Glucose Concentration Change at Physiological Temperature
Glucose-Responsive Membranes and Microcapsules for Controlled Release

Part VI Ion-Recognizable Hydrogel Functional Materials

Preparation and Properties of Ion-Recognizable Smart Hydrogels
Functional Microcapsules with Ion-Recognizable Properties

Part VII Molecular-Recognizable Hydrogel Functional Materials

Preparation and Properties of Molecular-Recognizable Smart Hydrogels
Functional Membranes with Molecular-Recognizable Properties.