Soft Materials for Functional Applications by Vijay Kumar

Soft Materials for Functional Applications by Vijay Kumar

This book highlights the fundamental and applied properties of different soft functional materials in pure and engineered forms. It presents recent developments in soft materials, such as material synthesis, properties, multicomponent materials engineering, device fabrication, experimental techniques, computational calculations, theoretical outcomes, state-of-the-art characterizations, new technologies, and evaluation of device performance. The chapters in this book are useful for researchers, professionals, policymakers, etc., who are interested and involved in exploring the scope of soft materials in future green and sustainable technologies. The book also includes state-of-the-art review chapters written by well-known specialists in the field and discusses applications in areas such as energy harvesting, soft grippers, robotics, biomimetic devices, drug delivery, surgical devices, smart packaging, and aerospace devices, including self-reporting and self-healing materials.

VIJAY KUMAR is a professor at the IIT School of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology's graduate school of design, where he directs the Strategic Design Planning and Design Methodologies programs. Kumar has lectured, published, consulted, and taught on the use of organized methodologies, tools, and frameworks for conceptualizing credible human-centered innovations and putting them into organizational strategic plans all over the world.