Fabrication process and enhanced electromechanical properties of the muscle-like gel actuator doped with glycerol

Zhao, Gang; Yang, Junjie; Wu, Yuda; Zhao, Honghao; Yu, Shuqin; Zhang, Guangli; Wang, Zhijie

doi:10.1088/2053-1591/aad61f

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, the water-exchanged T-fiber no longer exhibited an electro-responsive behavior even after a week of solvent exchange, with water being replaced every 24 h. This was probably attributed to the residual TEG inside the fiber hindering the transportation of the ion, which is crucial to the actuation process. 41 To fully remove the TEG from the network, we increased the temperature to enhance the mobility of the TEG molecules. Specifically, the TEG-treated fiber was immersed in fresh 95 °C water multiple times.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To enhance the mechanical strength of the hydrogel fiber, one solution is to increase the intermolecular and intramolecular interaction by reducing its water content . This can be achieved by converting it into a xerogel or organogel that contains solvent with a plasticizing effect. , Indeed, we found that the tensile strength of the hydrogel fiber in Figure B was greatly improved after desiccation. However, aside from making the fiber too stiff to be manufactured, this process was also irreversible for the fiber produced in this work.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is worth noting that the TEG-treated fiber was able to swell back to the initial water-containing state with a similar mechanical property (Figure S15A). However, the water-exchanged T-fiber no longer exhibited an electro-responsive behavior even after a week of solvent exchange, with water being replaced every 24 h. This was probably attributed to the residual TEG inside the fiber hindering the transportation of the ion, which is crucial to the actuation process …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Large-Scale Spinning Approach to Engineering Knittable Hydrogel Fiber for Soft Robots

Duan

Zhu

et al. 2020

ACS Nano

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Efforts to impart responsiveness to environmental stimuli in artificial hydrogel fibers are crucial to intelligent, shape-memory electronics and weavable soft robots. However, owing to the vulnerable mechanical property, poor processability, and the dearth of scalable assembly protocols, such functional hydrogel fibers are still far from practical usage. Herein, we demonstrate an approach toward the continuous fabrication of an electro-responsive hydrogel fiber by using the self-lubricated spinning (SLS) strategy. The polyelectrolyte inside the hydrogel fiber endows it with a fast electro-response property. After solvent exchange with triethylene glycol (TEG), the maximum tensile strength of the hydrogel fiber increases from 114 kPa to 5.6 MPa, far superior to those hydrogel fiber-based actuators reported previously. Consequently, the flexible and mechanical stable hydrogel fiber is knitted into various complex geometries on demand such as a crochet flower, triple knot, thread tube, pentagram, and hollow cage. Additionally, the electrochemical-responsive ionic hydrogel fiber is capable of acting as soft robots underwater to mimic biological motions, such as Mobula-like flapping, jellyfish-mimicking grabbing, sea worm-mimicking multi-degree of freedom movements, and human finger-like smart gesturing. This work not only demonstrates an example for the large-scale production of previous infeasible hydrogel fibers, but also provides a solution for the rational design and fabrication of hydrogel woven intelligent devices.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Large-Scale Spinning Approach to Engineering Knittable Hydrogel Fiber for Soft Robots

Duan

Zhu

et al. 2020

ACS Nano

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, the problem of improving its mechanochemical performance has become the focus of research nowadays. Zhao et al [19,20] has respectively used glycerol as the plasticizer and crosslinker CaCl 2 , to promote the output force and response speed of muscle-like gel actuator and electroresponsive biomimetic actuator, but their output force performances are still small and slow under the optimum parameters of glycerol or CaCl 2 . Xu and Sun et al [8,21,22] have explored effects of the moisture content and ionic liquid of the hydrogel-based electrolyte membrane made from sodium alginate (SA)/cellulose on the enhancement of electromechanical properties of a soft ionic actuator or nano-biocomposite artificial muscle, whereas the modification methods are cumbersome and the mechanism is too complex, which can only be applied in the laboratory without being popularized.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanochemical characteristics and influence mechanisms of a biomass hydrogel artificial muscle based on different parameters of the sodium alginate adjustment

Yang¹,

Wang²,

Yao³

et al. 2022

Smart Mater. Struct.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biomass Hydrogel Artificial Muscle (BHAM) is a kind of ionic electroactive polymers (EAPs), such as ionic polymer gels (IPGs) of good biocompatibility and stimulus responsiveness under electric field, which is largely used in the fields of soft robots and electric actuators. In this paper, based on the freeze-drying process, effect and influence mechanisms of Sodium Alginate (SA) parameters adjustment on the BHAM mechanochemical characteristics were researched extensively, which was verified by a set of perfect characteristic evaluation and experimental test methods, such as the porosity P (v%), water retention rate Wr (w%), mechanochemical property testing and SEM shots. The results showed that when the concentration of SA was 20 g/L, the actuating film of BHAM had suitable thickness and stomata in macroscopic appearance, and its micro pore distribution and size were uniform with the thin pore wall, which resulted in the highest porosity (i. e. ion channel) of 73.5 v%, the largest water retention rate of 76.2 w% and the optimum tensile strength of 0.38 MPa. Furthermore, calcium chloride (CaCl2) was adopted as a cross-linking agent to react with the SA to form Calcium Alginate (CA) by different CaCl2 cross-linking ratios, that was to modify the three-dimensional microstructure of the BHAM to improve its mechanical properties with the best deflection displacement of 23.9 mm and bending strain of 3.45% under the ideal CaCl2 cross-linking ratio of 1%. Besides, the diffraction of x-rays (XRD) analysis and thermal decomposition experiments of the BHAM were performed, which was demonstrated that the thermal stability of the CA-based BHAM was higher than that of the SA-based BHAM.

show abstract

“…A variety of composites of flexible polymer framework that responds to different stimuli, low power consumptions along with lightweight and flexibility make them functional constituent materials for the fabrication of soft actuators. 32–36 Moreover, the ionomeric membrane, composite of flexible polymer framework and a high amount of water like natural tissues, where the high capability of stimuli-response materials are necessary for the development of polymer membrane-based soft actuator is still required. 37,38…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A hybrid electro-responsive SWNT/PEDOT: PSS-based membrane towards soft actuator applications

Khan

Jain

Banerjee

et al. 2020

Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The flexible soft actuators of conducting polymers can directly convert electrical stimulus into mechanical motions, which can be used for robotics and biomimetic applications. Herein, an electro-responsive membrane actuator based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate), functionalized single-walled carbon nanotube was fabricated using solution casting method with poly(vinyl alcohol) as a base intermediate polymer membrane. The poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) was evenly ornamented onto the single-walled carbon nanotube/poly(vinyl alcohol) membrane (single-walled carbon nanotube/ poly(vinyl alcohol)/ poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate)) surfaces through dip coating and verified by scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The desirable bending response of the fabricated single-walled carbon nanotube/ poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) membrane with time at different voltages and generated tip force makes it a promising material as a new-generation conductive polymer-based soft actuator. A permutation of the electrical conductivity, more surface area, and admirable electromechanical properties of the single-walled carbon nanotube/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate) components consequences in the composite electrode exhibited excellent actuation performance compared to the ionic polymer-metal composite actuators with Pt electrodes surface. The fabricated actuator membrane can be employed for artificial muscles, robotics, and other bio-mimetic applications.

show abstract

Fabrication process and enhanced electromechanical properties of the muscle-like gel actuator doped with glycerol

Cited by 6 publications

References 20 publications

Large-Scale Spinning Approach to Engineering Knittable Hydrogel Fiber for Soft Robots

Large-Scale Spinning Approach to Engineering Knittable Hydrogel Fiber for Soft Robots

Mechanochemical characteristics and influence mechanisms of a biomass hydrogel artificial muscle based on different parameters of the sodium alginate adjustment

A hybrid electro-responsive SWNT/PEDOT: PSS-based membrane towards soft actuator applications

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About