• Polymer Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.447-453
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• 2011

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1242-1250
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• 2011

Several biomimetic artificial muscles including the electro-active synthetic polymers (SSEBS, PSMI/PVDF, SPEEK/PVDF, SPSE, XSPSE, PVA/SPTES and SPEI), bio-polymers (Bacterial Cellulose and Cellulose Acetate) and nano-composite (SSEBS-CNF, SSEBS-$C_{60}$, Nafion-$C_{60}$ and PHF-SPEI) actuators are introduced in this paper. Also, some applications of the developed biomimetic actuators are explained including biomimetic robots and biomedical active devices. Present results show that the developed electro-active polymer actuators with high-performance bending actuation can be promising smart materials applicable to diverse applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.302-306
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• 2012

Bacterial cellulose based actuator with large displacement was developed for biomimetic robots. Bacterial cellulose has 3D nanostructure with high porosity which was composed of the nanofibers. Freeze dried bacterial cellulose was dipped into ionic liquid solution such as 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium(BMIMCl) to enhance the actuation performance due to increase the ionexchange capacity and ionic conductivity. And Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly (styrnenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS) was used for the electrodes of both side of bacterial cellulose actuator by dipping and drying method. The FT-IR and XRD were conducted to examine the electrochemical changes of developed bacterial cellulose actuator. The biomimetic caudal fin was designed using bacterial cellulose actuator and PDMS to verify the possibility for biomimetic robot. The step and harmonic response were conducted to evaluate the performance of developed biomimetic actuator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.1141-1142
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• 2012

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.625-631
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• 2013

Mucoadhesive property is the major function as an adhesive for medical devices, and therefore, these days many researches have conducted to develop polymers having this property. Recently, biomimetic technology has been used for developing mucoadhesive polymers. Among many technologies, mussel-inspired approaches have received noticeable attention because of its thread's strong adhesive characteristics. In this study, we synthesized mucoadhesive biomimetic polymers employing catechol structures which are abundant in mussel adhesive proteins, and their structures and molecular weights were characterized by using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography. To evaluate in vitro mucoadhesive strength, the sheet type of the small intestinal porcine submucosa was prepared. Compared to commercial fibrin glue adhesives, catechol-containing mucoadhesive polymers showed enhanced adhesive strength. The study of adhesive strength with considering diverse factors, such as temperature, pressure, and oxidant amount indicated that mussel-inspired mucoadhesive polymer could be a promising candidate for an adhesive in various biomedical applications.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.105.5-105
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• 2002

Digital Polymer Motor (DPM) based on dielectric elastomer is presented. It includes all the supplementary parts for actuation such as micro-controller, DC-DC converter etc. DPM can be operated by itself with the program embedded and controlled via serial interface with PC. The actuator accomplishes bidirectional actuation and compliance controllability, which are important characteristics for a biomimetic artificial muscle actuator. DPM accomplish these requirements without any mechanical substitute or complicated algorithms. Its basic concepts and working principles are addressed with modeling and simulation and the compliance controllability are verified by conducting several experiments. $\textbullet$ Polymer, Dielectric, Biomimetic

• Polymer Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.460-466
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.1558-1562
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• 2008

Ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC), one of Electro- Active Polymer (EAP) actuators, has great attention due to the low-voltage driven, large deformation and its potential for artificial muscles. In this paper, we firstly review fish swimming modes using various propulsion mechanisms. Based on study on the swimming mechanisms, we develop an underwater robot actuator which mimics fanning motion of webfoot form. It consists of four actuators fabricated by using IPMC and PDMS which mimics Bio-inspired motion Experiments using a prototype show that the webfooted IPMC actuator generates large deformation and propulsion.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.10.2-10.2
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• 2011

The design and synthesis of protein-like polymers is a fundamental challenge in materials science. A biomimetic approach is to explore the impact of monomer sequence on non-natural polymer structure and function. We present the aqueous self-assembly of two peptoid polymers into extremely thin two-dimensional (2D) crystalline sheets directed by periodic amphiphilicity, electrostatic recognition and aromatic interactions. Peptoids are sequence-specific, oligo-N-substituted glycine polymers designed to mimic the structure and functionality of proteins. Mixing a 1:1 ratio of two oppositely charged peptoid 36 mers of a specific sequence in aqueous solution results in the formation of giant, free-floating sheets with only 2.7 nm thickness. Direct visualization of aligned individual peptoid chains in the sheet structure was achieved using aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. Specific binding of a protein to ligand-functionalized sheets was also demonstrated. The synthetic flexibility and biocompatibility of peptoids provide a flexible and robust platform for integrating functionality into defined 2D nanostructures. In the later part of my talk, we describe the use of metal ions to construct two-dimensional hybrid films that have the ability to self-heal. Incubation of biomimetic peptoid polymers with specific divalent metal ions results in the spontaneous formation of uniform multilayers at the air-water interface. We anticipate that ease of synthesis and transfer of these two-dimensional materials may have many potential applications in catalysis, gas storage and sensing, optics, nanomaterial synthesis, and environmentally responsive scaffolds.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.205-212
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• 2001

One of the important characteristics of biological systems os their ability to change im-portant properties in response to small environmental signals. The molecular mechanisms that biological molecules utilize to sense and respond provide interesting models for the development of "smart" polymeric biomaterials with biomimetic properties. An important example of this is the protein coat of viruses, which contains peptide units that facilitate the trafficking of the virus into the cell via endocytosis, then out of the endosome into the cytoplasm, and from there into the nucleus, We have designed a family of synthetic polymers whose compositions have been de-signed to mimic specific peptides on viral coats that facilitate endosomal escape. Our biomimetic polymers are responsive to the lowered pH whinin endosomes, leading to distruption of the en-dosomal membrane and release of important biomolecular druges such as DNA, RNA, peptides and proteins to the cytoplasm before they are trafficked to lysosomes and degraded by lysosomal en-zymes. In this article, we review our work on the design, synthesis and action of such smart, pH-sensitive polymers.