Light‐Mediated Manufacture and Manipulation of Actuators

Abstract

Recent years have seen a considerable growth of research interests in developing novel technologies that permit designable manufacture and controllable manipulation of actuators. Among various fabrication and driving strategies, light has emerged as an enabler to reach this end, contributing to the development of actuators. Several accessible light-mediated manufacturing technologies, such as ultraviolet (UV) lithography and direct laser writing (DLW), are summarized. A series of light-driven strategies including optical trapping, photochemical actuation, and photothermal actuation for controllable manipulation of actuators is introduced. Current challenges and future perspectives of this field are discussed. To generalize, light holds great promise for the development of actuators.

Plasmonic‐Assisted Graphene Oxide Films with Enhanced Photothermal Actuation for Soft Robots

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“…Polymers that respond by changing shape or size to an external stimuli, such as electric1–7 and magnetic fields,1 heat,8–10 pressure11,12 pH,13,14 and light,7,15,16 have great potential for artificial muscles, soft robotics, and microsensors. Electroactive polymers (EAPs) can be insulating (electronic EAPs), or ionic EAPs (iEAPs) 5.…”

Sunlight‐Driven Water Transport via a Reconfigurable Pump

“…[16] Comparing to the semitransparent PDMS/GO tube prior to reduction, the resulted PDMS/rGO displayed significant enhancement in light absorption from the ultraviolet to nearinfrared range ( Figure S5). Thea bsorbed photon energy in PDMS/rGO tube was readily converted into heat by rGO.…”