Large-Strain, Multiform Movements from Designable Electrothermal Actuators Based on Large Highly Anisotropic Carbon Nanotube Sheets

Abstract

Many electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators use diverse configurations of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as pliable electrodes to realize discontinuous, agile movements, for CNTs are conductive and flexible. However, the reported CNT-based EAP actuators could only accomplish simple, monotonous actions. Few actuators were extended to complex devices because efficiently preparing a large-area CNT electrode was difficult, and complex electrode design has not been carried out. In this work, we successfully prepared large-area CNT paper (buckypaper, BP) through an efficient approach. The BP is highly anisotropic, strong, and suitable as flexible electrodes. By means of artful graphic design and processing on BP, we fabricated various functional BP electrodes and developed a series of BP-polymer electrothermal actuators (ETAs). The prepared ETAs can realize various controllable movements, such as large-stain bending (>180°), helical curling (∼ 630°), or even bionic actuations (imitating human-hand actions). These functional and interesting movements benefit from flexible electrode design and the anisotropy of BP material. Owing to the advantages of low driving voltage (20-200 V), electrolyte-free and long service life (over 10000 times), we think the ETAs will have great potential applications in the actuator field.

Biophysical and biological contributions of polyamine-coated carbon nanotubes and bidimensional buckypapers in the delivery of miRNAs to human cells

“…In particular, we took into account very small CNTs, a suspension of CNTs starting from the commercial product and a 2D material based on CNTs (ie, buckypapers [BPs]) to examine the transfection efficiency of a rigid scaffold. 26 BPs are randomly entangled and densely packed CNT networks, which have been employed in retina and iris pigment epithelial transplantation 27 as actuators, 28 biosensors, 29 carriers for drug delivery 30 and finally as scaffolds for tissue engineering. 31 Although few studies have characterized the properties of BPs on cell adhesion, cell response and cytotoxicity [32][33][34] and proposed the use of BPs in medical applications, [35][36][37] the use of BPs as transfecting agents for nucleic acids has never been proposed.…”

Flexible and Stretchable Physical Sensor Integrated Platforms for Wearable Human‐Activity Monitoringand Personal Healthcare

“…In addition, strain sensors in human-motion detection need to satisfy the following requirements: high stretchability, fl exibility, high sensitivity, high durability, fast response/recovery speeds, and conformability. [ 122 ] Therefore, various types of fl exible and stretchable strain sensing materials such as P(VDF-TrFE), [ 77,123 ] ZnO NWs, [124][125][126][127][128][129] ZnSnO 3 NWs, [ 130 ] CNTs, [ 31,119,131,132 ] CNT composites, [ 28,133 ] graphene, [ 36,[134][135][136][137][138][139] R-GO, [ 121,[140][141][142] R-GO composites, [ 10,34,143 ] Ag NWs, [ 33 ] polymeric nanofi bers, [ 30 ] carbon black (CB), [ 11,144 ] organic semiconductors, [ 32,145,146 ] metal NPs, [ 122 ] Si NWs, [ 147 ] GaInSn, [ 148 ] and conductive polymers [149][150][151][152]…”

Light and electrically responsive materials based on aligned carbon nanotubes

“…In order to solve above problems, ACNTs have been introduced into the ionic electrically responsive polymer, because ACNTs as second component possess a high conductivity and mechanical strength to enhance their electromechanical response. A sulfonated tetrafluoroethylene based fluoropolymer-copolymer (Nafion) is a typical ionic electro-active polymer with high ionic conductivity and excellent physical properties [73,74]. The actuation of conductive polymer is generally accomplished in electrolyte solutions.…”