CHAPTER 8: Electro-Chemo-Biomimetic Devices

Living creatures have been, are and will be a permanent source of inspiration for scientists, engineers and robot designers. Dense gel membrane electrodes are presented here as the first materials mimicking, in its simplest expression, the contents of the intracellular matrix (ICM) of living cells and its reaction-driven conformational movements, supporting life and life functions. Chapter 5 describes some of the composition-dependent and electro-chemo-biomimetic properties. The description of the emerging technological world of one-tool reactive (the reaction of the device constituent materials results in its actuation) and biomimetic (mimicking organs and biological functions) devices is presented here: artificial muscles and actuators; intelligent membranes and tuning ionic filters; smart drug delivery devices; artificial chemical synapses for neurons/computer communication and ion trapping for decontamination systems; chemo-ionic-conformational memories approaching brain memory; all-organic batteries and supercapacitors; intelligent surfaces for self-drying or self-cleaning, smart windows, mirrors, glasses and filters in both the visible and infrared regions; and sensors and biosensors. Some basic, general aspects of these emerging devices and their technological expectancies will be described.