Flexible and wearable technologies are gaining wide attention with their promise of applications in sensing, electronics, and energy. The materials involved should be flexible, lightweight, robust, and non-toxic. Natural biopolymers such as silk, chitin, collagen, cellulose, and gelatine have these properties, with the additional benefits of low cost, renewability, and biocompatibility. Taking a closer look at these soft materials and their forms reveals novel multifunctional abilities, paving the way for new devices.
Introducing the recent development of multifunctional natural polymers, this book serves as a reference for researchers, detailing the novel properties and behaviour of natural biopolymers, and their synthetic strategies. Students will find this a useful introduction to multifunctional soft matter and polymer physics. Throughout the book an understanding of the principles of flexible and wearable device design will allow readers to connect materials to applications in wearable electronics, such as flexible sensors, soft robots, solar cells and energy storage devices.