Ultrastrong and Highly Sensitive Fiber Microactuators Constructed by Force‐Reeled Silks

Lin, Shihui; Wang, Zhen; Chen, Xinyan; Ren, Jing; Ling, Shengjie

doi:10.1002/advs.201902743

Cited by 53 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…In addition, the gland, with decreasing diameter, has been proven to be an outstanding actuator of the sophisticated spinning system. [5,9] It has been qualitatively demonstrated that a region of contracting geometry of the S-shaped duct of silk gland can induce stretching of protein molecules, phase separation, and self-assembly due to shear and elongation flow. [10][11][12][13][14][15] During the subsequent spinning process in air, the protein ultimately aggregates into fibers with spectacular and distinctive properties.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Lü

Fan

Geng

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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The outstanding performance of silk, especially in terms of mechanical properties, can be attributed to the sophisticated silk gland and specialized spinning method that exists in nature. In addition, the gland, with decreasing diameter, has been proven to be an outstanding actuator of the sophisticated spinning system. [5,9] It has been qualitatively demonstrated that a region of contracting geometry of the S-shaped duct of silk gland can induce stretching of protein molecules, phase separation, and self-assembly due to shear and elongation flow. [10][11][12][13][14][15] During the subsequent spinning process in air, the protein ultimately aggregates into fibers with spectacular and distinctive properties. However, the mechanisms within the glands with exponential decaying diameter and their ability to dynamically change the conformation of the proteins is yet to be elucidated. [6] At present, various biomimetic spinning methods have been used to fabricate high-performance artificial silk and reveal the relationship between the spinning channel and silk performance. For example, the microfluidic device with miniaturized channels of designed configurations can easily control the physicochemical microenvironment, while using trace amounts of reagents. [6,10,[16][17][18][19][20] The sophisticated, compact, and highly functional microfluidic devices have been widely used to understand the geometry confinements, control overflow, and synthesis of artificially regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) fibers. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] For example, Rammensee et al. prepared assembled spider dragline silk fibers through a microfluidic device. [31] Kinahan et al. adopted the same method to fabricate functional fibers with expected properties by controlling flow conditions. [32] Based on these studies, Zhang's group designed microfluidic chips mimicking the first-order and second-order exponential decay function of silk glands and prepared high-performance artificial silk fibers. [24][25][26]33,34] In our previous work, [35,36] statistics of spider's major ampullate (MA) gland of Nephila edulis were extracted from the work of Knight et al., [12] and then a microfluidic chip was prepared which fitted well to the second-order exponential decay function. The bioinspired chip possessed excellent similarity with the MA gland of spider, and was used to prepare RSF/cellulose nanofibers (CNF) hybrid fibers. However, there were some differences between the size of our microfluidic chip and the ampullate gland of spider. First, the actual diameter of lumen in the MA gland of N. edulis is from ≈250 to 8 µm. [12] However, high concentration of RSF/CNF suspensions (30 wt%) cannot flow through Microfluidic spinning has been used to mimic and discover the natural spinning process of silk. However, it is still challenging to understand the orientation and alignment of silk-spinning through microfluidic chips. Here, flow analysis is performed for a bioinspired microfluidic chip mimicking the shape of a spider's major ampullate gland a...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Lü

Fan

Geng

et al. 2021

Adv Materials Technologies

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“…Initially, the twisting technique was applied in the textile area to make ply‐yarns for improved mechanical property, but nowadays its application has been extended into various cutting‐edge fields, for example, sensor, [ 24 ] actuator, [ 25 ] and artificial muscle. [ 26 ] Especially for the strain sensor, it is available to achieve a sensitive, durable, and low‐hysteresis feature by tuning the twisting structure and the related working mechanism in the stretching–recovery process has been systematically discussed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast‐Response/Recovery Flexible Piezoresistive Sensors with DNA‐Like Double Helix Yarns for Epidermal Pulse Monitoring

Chen

Zhang

et al. 2021

Advanced Materials

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A key challenge in textile sensors is to adequately solve the hysteresis for more broad and exacting applications. Unlike the conventional strategy in integrating elastic polymers into the textile, the hysteretic issue is critically addressed here through the structural design of yarns to provide a twisting force. The underlying mechanism is fully discussed based on theory and modeling, which are in good agreement with experimental data. Impressively, the pressure sensor outperforms almost all reported textile‐based sensors in terms of recovery index, which refers to the ability to overcome the lagged deformation reflected by the hysteresis (5.3%) and relaxation time (2 ms). Besides, the sensor superiority is also demonstrated by way of its ultrafast response time (2 ms). Thanks to these merits, this pressure sensor is demonstrated to be capable of monitoring epidermal pulses and meanwhile shows great potential to advance the standardization and modernization of pulse palpation in traditional Chinese medicine.

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“…The most important is that they can provide a comfortable wearing experience and respond to humidity for the purpose of managing body temperature. Lin ( Lin et al, 2020 ), Jia ( Jia T. et al, 2019 ), and other researchers ( Wang W. et al, 2019 ; An et al, 2020 ) adopted a conventional spinning and twisting yarn technology to prepare silk fiber actuators. Studies have shown that these types of actuators can quickly expand and contract by water absorption-induced loss of hydrogen bonds within the silk proteins and the associated structural transformation, as shown in Figure 4A .…”

Section: Single Stimulus Response Smart Actuatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Actuators Based on External Stimulus Response

Zheng

Jiang

et al. 2021

Front. Chem.

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Smart actuators refer to integrated devices that are composed of smart and artificial materials, and can provide actuation and dampening capabilities in response to single/multi external stimuli (such as light, heat, magnetism, electricity, humidity, and chemical reactions). Due to their capability of dynamically sensing and interaction with complex surroundings, smart actuators have attracted increasing attention in different application fields, such as artificial muscles, smart textiles, smart sensors, and soft robots. Among these intelligent material, functional hydrogels with fiber structure are of great value in the manufacture of smart actuators. In this review, we summarized the recent advances in stimuli-responsive actuators based on functional materials. We emphasized the important role of functional nano-material-based additives in the preparation of the stimulus response materials, then analyzed the driving response medium, the preparation method, and the performance of different stimuli responses in detail. In addition, some challenges and future prospects of smart actuators are reported.

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Ultrastrong and Highly Sensitive Fiber Microactuators Constructed by Force‐Reeled Silks

Cited by 53 publications

References 45 publications

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Flow Analysis of Regenerated Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanofiber Suspensions via a Bioinspired Microfluidic Chip

Ultrafast‐Response/Recovery Flexible Piezoresistive Sensors with DNA‐Like Double Helix Yarns for Epidermal Pulse Monitoring

Smart Actuators Based on External Stimulus Response

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