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Abstract

Polymer Science: Peer Review Journal

Stress- Activated Smart Materials that Respond via Curie Symmetry and the Non- Equilibrium Boltzmann Equation

  • Open or CloseLaurence A Belfiore*

    Polymer Physics & Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratories Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, USA

    *Corresponding author:Laurence A Belfiore, Polymer Physics & Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratories, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Colorado State University, and the Aspen Center for Theoretical Physics Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Submission: October 13, 2020;Published: November 17, 2020

Volume1 Issue2
November, 2020

Abstract

Macromolecules that respond to external stimuli represent a unique class of smart materials. In general, sensitivity to stress in biological macromolecules is described via complex mechano-transduction pathways. Theoretical foundations of stress- kinetic scalar cross-phenomena are evident in the transport-phenomena-based rate of entropy generation and the corresponding linear laws proposed by Onsager, with assistance from Curie’s symmetry theorem. According to Pierre Curie, physical phenomena occur as a consequence of symmetry-breaking, such that systems experience a reduction in symmetry. This concept is supported by Landau free energy functionals for ferromagnets in the vicinity of the Curie temperature (i.e., critical point). The breaking of symmetry has acquired special significance in physics, with respect to the laws of nature. The concept of stress-sensitive chemical transformations in smart materials yields unique rate laws via solution of Boltzmann’s nonequilibrium transport equation that employs a “relaxation-time approximation” to quantify binary collisions between reactive molecules.

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