Smart and soft electroactive polymer actuators have many beneficial properties, making them attractive for biomimetic and biomedical applications. However, the selection of components to fabricate biofriendly composites has been limited. Although biofriendly options for electrodes and membranes are available, the conventional ionic liquids (ILs) often used as the electrolytes in the actuators have been considered toxic in varying degrees. Here we present a smart electroactive composite with carefully designed and selected components that have shown low toxicity and a biofriendly nature. In the present study, polypyrrole-PVdF trilayer actuators using six different choline ILs were prepared and characterized. Choline ILs have shown promise in applications where low environmental and biological impact is critical. Despite this, the anions in ILs have a strong impact on toxicity. To evaluate how the anions effect the bioactivity of the ILs used to prepare the actuators, the ILs were tested on different microbial cultures (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1) and HeLa cells. All of the selected choline ILs showed minimal toxic effects even at high concentrations. Electro-chemo-mechanical characterization of the actuators indicated that polypyrrole-PVdF actuators with choline ILs are viable candidates for soft robotic applications. From the tested ILs, choline acetate showed the highest strain difference and outperformed the reference system containing an imidazolium-based IL.

As both consumers and producers are shifting from fossil-derived materials to other, more sustainable approaches, there is a growing interest in bio-origin and biodegradable polymers. In search of bio-degradable electro-mechanically active materials, cellulose-multi wall carbon nanotube (Cell-CNT) composites are a focus for the development of actuators and sensors. In the current study, our aim was to fabricate Cell-CNT composite fibers and study their electro-mechanical response as linear actuators in aqueous and propylene carbonate-based electrolyte solutions. While the response was (expectedly) strongly solvent dependent, the different solvents also revealed unexpected phenomena. Cell-CNT fibers in propylene carbonate revealed a strong back-relaxation process at low frequencies, and also a frequency dependent response direction change (change of actuation direction). Cell-CNT fibers operated in aqueous electrolyte showed response typical to electrochemical capacitors including expansion at discharging with controllable actuation dependence on charge density. While the response was similarly stable in both electrolyte solution systems, the aqueous electrolytes were clearly favorable for Cell-CNT with 3.4 times higher conductivities, 4.3 times higher charge densities and 11 times higher strain.

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While increasing power output is the most straight-forward solution for faster and stronger motion in technology, sports, or elsewhere, efficiency is what separates the best from the rest. In nature, where the possibilities of power increase are limited, efficiency of motion is particularly important; the same principle can be applied to the emerging biomimetic and bio-interacting technologies. In this work, by applying hints from nature, we consider possible approaches of increasing the efficiency of motion through liquid medium of bilayer ionic electroactive polymer actuations, focusing on the reduction of friction by means of surface tension and hydrophobicity. Conducting polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bilayers were chosen as the model actuator system. The actuation medium consisted of aqueous solutions containing tetramethylammonium chloride and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate in different ratios. The roles of ion concentrations and the surface tension are discussed. Hydrophobicity of the PET support layer was further tuned by adding a spin-coated silicone layer to it. As expected, both approaches increased the displacement—the best results having been obtained by combining both, nearly doubling the bending displacement. The simple approaches for greatly increasing actuation motion efficiency can be used in any actuator system operating in a liquid medium.

Smart and soft electroactive polymer actuators as building blocks for soft robotics have many beneficial properties that could make them useful in future biomimetic and biomedical applications. Gelatin—a material exploited for medical applications—can be used to make a fully biologically benign soft electroactive polymer actuator that provides high performance and has been shown to be harmless. In our study, these polypyrrole-gelatin trilayer actuators with choline acetate and choline isobutyrate showed the highest strain difference and highest efficiency in strain difference to charge density ratios compared to a reference system containing imidazolium-based ionic liquid and a traditional polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF) membrane material. As neither the relative ion sizes nor the measured parameters of the ionic liquids could explain their behavior in the actuators, molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations were conducted. Strong cation-cation clustering was found and the radial distribution functions provided further insight into the topic, showing that the cation-cation correlation peak height is a good predictor of strain difference of the actuators.

Mixing ionic liquids is a suitable strategy to tailor properties, e.g., to reduce melting points. The present study aims to widen the application range of low-toxic choline-based ionic liquids by studying eight binary phase diagrams of six different choline carboxylates. Five of them show eutectic points with melting points dropping by 13 to 45 • C. The eutectic mixtures of choline acetate and choline 2-methylbutarate were found to melt at 45 • C, which represents a remarkable melting point depression compared to the pure compounds with melting points of 81 (choline acetate) and 90 • C (choline 2-methylbutarate), respectively. Besides melting points, the thermal stabilities of the choline salt mixtures were investigated to define the thermal operation range for potential practical applications of these mixtures. Typical decomposition temperatures were found between 165 and 207 • C, with choline lactate exhibiting the highest thermal stability.Advantages of DESs compared to pure ILs include easy preparation and therefore low production costs, increased biocompatibility in case of certain components, and bigger variety for customization concerning acidity, hydrophobicity, or polarity. DES systems have demonstrated their practical use in several applications, such as interfacial polymerizations [7], electrochemistry [8], and organic reactions [9].So far, the published research describing IL mixtures has mainly focused on imidazolium [10,11], pyrrolidinium [12], and pyridinium [13] ILs. In these works, significant melting point suppression effects were found for the respective eutectic mixtures. However, imidazolium, pyrrolidinium, and pyridinium ILs and their mixtures face some limitations when it comes to large-scale applications in contact with microorganisms or living matter [14]. Challenges include toxicity aspects and the cost for the organic cation synthesis. This is why a more detailed investigation of choline salts is highly interesting. Based on the available literature, choline salts are characterized by their low toxicity for different cell-lines [15,16], bacteria [17], and other organisms [18]. Moreover, choline salts are industrially available on a large scale.The most widely studied choline salt used in eutectic mixtures is choline chloride [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. One of the first reported DESs was a mixture of choline chloride (liquefaction temperature 302 • C), and urea (melting point 134 • C) that resulted in a 2:1 molar mixture with a remarkable melting point suppression to 12 • C [4]. The typical strategy was to combine choline ILs with molecular compounds such as carboxylic acids, alcohols, and urea derivates [27], and such choline-based DESs have been used in various applications, e.g., as drug solubilization vehicles [28][29][30]. Note, however, that by mixing a choline IL with molecular substances, some of the very attractive IL properties, e.g., non-volatility, non-flammability, and high ionic conductivity can get lost to a large extent. This is why the mixing of two choline ILs is ...

Featured Application: The developed fully simulation-based melting point prediction method facilitates the design of novel green ionic liquids. Abstract:In this work, we introduce a simulation-based method for predicting the melting point of ionic liquids without prior knowledge of their crystal structure. We run molecular dynamics simulations of biofriendly, choline cation-based ionic liquids and apply the method to predict their melting point. The root-mean-square error of the predicted values is below 24 K. We advocate that such precision is sufficient for designing ionic liquids with relatively low melting points. The workflow for simulations is available for everyone and can be adopted for any species from the wide chemical space of ionic liquids.

Polymers of natural origin, especially cellulose, have risen to the focus of smart materials, and also energy storage materials' research as sustainable matrix alternatives. In this work, novel composites of cellulose with activated carbon aerogel (ACA) and carbide-derived carbon (CDC) are demonstrated. The composites were formulated as fibers from regenerated cellulose (Cell). The electromechanical response as linear actuation in stress and strain of the fibers was studied in an organic electrolyte at low applied potentials in range of 0.55 to À0.8 V. Cyclic voltammetry and square wave potential steps were performed revealing for both composite fibers expansion at positive charging. The Cell-ACA fibers showed a stronger response compared with Cell-CDC, largely due to the particle structure, reflected in higher electronic conductivity. The chronopotentiometric measurements showed that Cell-ACA also had the higher specific capacitance of the two of 47.5 F g À1 . The dual-function of Cell-ACA and Cell-CDC of electromechanical activity and energy storage capability can have potential in smart clothing applications.