Sharp and fast: Sensors and switches based on polymer brushes with   adsorption-active minority chains
  We propose a design for polymer-based sensors and switches with sharp switching transition and fast response time. The switching mechanism involves a radical change in the conformations of adsorption-active minority chains in a brush. Such transitions can be induced by a temperature change of only about ten degrees, and the characteristic time of the conformational change is less than a second. We present an analytical theory for these switches and support it by self-consistent field calculations and Brownian dynamics simulations. 
Leonid I. Klushin, Alexander M. Skvortsov, Alexey A. Polotsky, Shuanhu   Qi, Friederike Schmid
cond-mat.soft physics.chem-ph