Soft Materials for Functional Applications

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.

Dr. Vijay Kumar is working as an assistant professor in physics at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar (J&K). Before joining NIT Srinagar, he worked as an assistant professor in physics at Chandigarh University, Mohali. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Phosphor Research Group, University of the Free State, South Africa. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from SLIET Longowal and an M.Sc. in physics from the National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, Punjab, India. His research experience and interests lie in the synthesis, processing, and characterization of functional materials, solid-state luminescent materials, bio-based/biodegradable polymers, and composites, drug delivery devices, wastewater treatment, polymer nanocomposites, and ion solid interaction.

Dr. Yogendra Kumar Mishra is a professor MSO at Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Sønderborg, Denmark. Prior to joining SDU, he was leading a scientifically independent group at functional nanomaterials chair, Institute for Material Science, Kiel University, Kiel Germany. He did habilitation (Dr. Habil.) in materials science from Kiel University in 2015 and Ph.D. in physics in 2008 from Inter University Accelerator Centre/Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. His main research focus is on ‘Smart Materials’.