Protective Coating with Crystalline Shells to Fabricate Dual-Stimuli Responsive Actuators

Xu, Pengcheng; Qi, Yu; Chen, Yao; Cheng, Peng; Zhang, Zhenjie

doi:10.31635/ccschem.021.202000663

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Over the past decade, molecular crystals with ordered molecule packing have been attracting increasing attention as an emerging class of mechanically actuating materials due to their advantages such as rapid response, fast relaxation recovery, and high Young's modulus, and clear response mechanism. [20][21][22] However, their small crystal size, fragility, and low processability severely limit their practical applications, [23,24] e.g., hard to make large motions (work) or difficult to fabricate macroscale actuating devices. Thus, ideal mechanically actuating materials should possess both the advantage of polymeric materials (e.g., high mechanical property and processability) and molecular crystal (e.g., ordered structure) in one system, however, they remain underexplored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Class of Rigid–Flexible Coupling Crystalline Crosslinked Polymers as Vapomechanical Actuators

et al. 2022

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Fabricating mechanically responsive actuators that can efficiently convert external stimuli into mechanical work is of great significance for real-world applications. Herein, we rationally design a class of rigid-flexible coupling crystalline crosslinked polymers (CCPs) to fabricate vapomechanically responsive actuators. Interfacial condensation reactions of flexible macromers with rigid monomers afford a series of freestanding CCP membranes. Notably, it is the first example where crosslinked polymers show high crystallinity and porosity. Moreover, the CCP membranes exhibit good mechanical properties and interesting vapor-triggered actuation performance, which is reversible and repeatable. We find that the unusual polymer structures, high vapor sorption, and anisotropic membranes contribute to the directional deformation performance of the CCP actuators. The synthesis approach in this work provides new insights into the design and fabrication of smart materials for advanced applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Class of Rigid–Flexible Coupling Crystalline Crosslinked Polymers as Vapomechanical Actuators

et al. 2022

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“…The formed p-crystal@ZIF-8 (p-crystal = photoresponsive crystal) became insoluble in common organic solvents such as DMF, methanol, ethanol, and acetone, improving the dispersibility and compatibility of pcrystal@ZIF-8 with the polymer matrix. 48 After combining the photoresponse of molecular crystals with the vapor response of PVDF polymers, an advanced dual-stimuli responsive actuator was fabricated. The 9EA@ZIF-8@PVDF system could be processed into a bionic robot, which exhibited crawling behavior through alternating vapor and light stimuli (Figure 7d).…”

Section: Physical Blending With Polymer Matrixes Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fabricating Smart Materials Systems For Practical Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stimuli-Responsive Crystalline Smart Materials: From Rational Design and Fabrication to Applications

2022

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Conspectus Stimuli-responsive smart materials that can undergo reversible chemical/physical changes under external stimuli such as mechanical stress, heat, light, gas, electricity, and pH, are currently attracting increasing attention in the fields of sensors, actuators, optoelectronic devices, information storage, medical applications, and so forth. The current smart materials mostly concentrate on polymers, carbon materials, crystalline liquids, and hydrogels, which have no or low structural order (i.e., the responsive groups/moieties are disorderly in the structures), inevitably introducing deficiencies such as a relatively low response speeds, energy transformation inefficiencies, and unclear structure–property relationships. Consequently, crystalline materials with well-defined and regular molecular arrays can offer a new opportunity to create novel smart materials with improved stimuli-responsive performance. Crystalline materials include framework materials (e.g., metal–organic frameworks, MOFs; covalent organic frameworks, COFs) and molecular crystals (e.g., organic molecules and molecular cages), which have obvious advantages as smart materials compared to amorphous materials. For example, responsive groups/moieties can be uniformly installed in the skeleton of the crystal materials to form ordered molecular arrays, making energy transfer between external-stimulus signals and responsive sites much faster and more efficiently. Besides that, the well-defined structures facilitate in situ characterization of their structural transformation at the molecular level by means of various techniques and high-tech equipment such as in situ spectra and single-crystal/powder X-ray diffraction, thus benefiting the investigation and understanding of the mechanism behind the stimuli-responsive behaviors and structure–property relationships. Nevertheless, some unsolved challenges remain for crystalline smart materials (CSMs), hampering the fabrication of smart material systems for practical applications. For instance, as the materials’ crystallinity increases, their processability and mechanical properties usually decrease, unavoidably hindering their practical application. Moreover, crystalline smart materials mostly exist as micro/nanosized powders, which are difficult to make stimuli-responsive on the macroscale. Thus, developing strategies that can balance the materials’ crystallinity and processability and establishing macroscale smart material systems are of great significance for practical applications. In this Account, we mainly summarize the recent research progress achieved by our groups, including (i) the rational design and fabrication of new stimuli-responsive crystalline smart materials, including molecular crystals and framework materials, and an in-depth investigation of their response mechanism and structure–property relationship and (ii) creating chemical/physical modification strategies to improve the processability and mechanical properties for crystalline materials and establishing macroscale smart s...

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“…Zhang and co-workers reported a hybrid actuator which was manufactured using a simple coating strategy that utilized ZIF-8 as a crystalline shell for the protection of molecular crystals against external perturbations. [90] This strategy could remarkably enhance the dispersibility and compatibility of the MOFs in polymer solutions. In particular, they combined the photoresponse of anthracene crystals and the vapor-responsive properties of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in a single system to achieve an advanced dual-stimuli responsive smart actuator as shown in Figure 6d.…”

Section: Photoresponsive Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoresponsive Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Tailorable Platforms of Photoswitches for Advanced Functions

Zhang¹,

Au³

2022

ChemNanoMat

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Stimuli-responsive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted great interest in a diverse range of applications due to their abilities to change attributes under external stimuli. As a ubiquitous stimulus, light can be remotely controlled and quickly switched. Hence, the exploration of photoresponsive materials has attracted widespread interest. In particular, photoresponsive MOFs are usually formed by inserting photoswitchable linkers of different properties within the MOF backbone. Under the action of light, some physical and/or chemical changes will occur, resulting in a series of structural and morphological changes, in turn producing specific functions in different MOF materials. In this review, we will highlight some representative examples to demonstrate the recent advances in the development of photoresponsive MOF-based materials. The main types of molecular photoswitches, their properties and the main applications of photoresponsive MOFs will also be covered, followed by a discussion on the future development of the field.

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Protective Coating with Crystalline Shells to Fabricate Dual-Stimuli Responsive Actuators

Cited by 21 publications

References 42 publications

A Class of Rigid–Flexible Coupling Crystalline Crosslinked Polymers as Vapomechanical Actuators

A Class of Rigid–Flexible Coupling Crystalline Crosslinked Polymers as Vapomechanical Actuators

Stimuli-Responsive Crystalline Smart Materials: From Rational Design and Fabrication to Applications

Photoresponsive Metal‐Organic Frameworks: Tailorable Platforms of Photoswitches for Advanced Functions

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