ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
·
2023
·
IF 19
Xinpeng Che,Ting Wang,Bailang Zhang,Zhuanzhuan Zhai,Yijun Chen,Danfeng Pei,Anle Ge,Mingjie Li,Chaoxu Li
Harvesting electricity from ubiquitous atmospheric moisture has drawn growing research attention. Despite great advances, moisture generators still suffer from performance decay during long-term service. Recently, self-oscillating actuators driven by humidity gradience have attracted great interests, which may give a clue to harvest energy persistently via electromagnetic induction. In order to combine high electric conductivity with self-oscillating actuators, bimorph composites of 2D conductive MXene with liquid metal (i.e., EGaIn) are designed. In presence of marine alginate, EGaIn droplets can be encapsulated by MXene nanosheets in their suspension. And simple liquid-casting can produce biomorph actuating films with top MXene-rich layer and bottom EGaIn-rich layer of self-sintered EGaIn droplets. When exposing to a humidity gradience (e.g., 20% cm −1 ), this biomorph actuator can oscillate persistently with an actuating speed of ≈260° s −1 and a frequency of ≈0.5 Hz, while without any human intervention. Under a magnetic field (e.g., intensity ≈0.5 T), this self-oscillating behavior can generate an alternating faradic current with an amplitude of at least 1360 µA m −2 . Thus, this study may not only provide an alternative pathway for producing self-oscillating and conductive actuators, but also offer a new strategy for persistent energy harvest from atmospheric moisture.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
能源技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
·
2025
·
IF 8.2
Qiuyu Chen,Jinhui Huang,Xinran Feng,Hui Xie,Shaobing Zhou
Biomimicking aquatic organisms offers many opportunities for designing intelligent robots that can freely move on water. However, most works were focused on multilayered materials or assembled structures and faced limitations in stability, versatility, and motion navigation. Here, we develop an assembly-free water-strider-like aquatic robot using a single layer of light-programmable liquid-crystal elastomer (LCE) that could be used to create asymmetric structures. The LCE strider mimics both the shape and functions of natural water striders; it is designed with four legs, with the fore and hind legs being programmed respectively via light. Consequently, the LCE strider shows self-oscillation and self-propulsion behaviors on low-grade thermal water with a temperature gradient at the air–water interface, owing to unbalanced changes in the contact areas and tensions between the legs and water. Furthermore, the trajectories of the LCE strider are manipulated by NIR light after selectively depositing polydopamine with photothermal conversion. In this way, path navigation is realized, that is, moving straight and on-demand turning, similar to the movement of natural water striders. This study should inspire the development of soft intelligent robots using shape-morphing materials.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
仿生学
·
智能机器人
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
ChemSystemsChem
·
2024
·
IF 3.1
Zhenfang Cheng,Ling Yuan,Hui Wang,Haodi Yu,Meng Zhang,Irving R Epstein,Tan Gao,Lin Ren,Qingyu Gao
Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) self-oscillating gels exhibit periodic volumetric swelling–deswelling, providing the basis for autonomous soft robots without external control. However, traditional BZ self-oscillating gels suffer from degradation and slow chemo–mechanical response. Here, three types of BZ self-oscillating gels were prepared by adjusting the monomer/crosslinker ratio and using N-isopropylacrylamide nanogels as crosslinker. Compared with traditional gels, the toughness of nanopolymerized and entangled gels was markedly improved and their response to the Ru (II)/Ru (III) alternation was accelerated. The three self-oscillating gels showed different periodic responses in a BZ reaction solution. Entangled gels, as a result of their greater spatial uniformity in energy dissipation and enhanced interconnection between mesopores, respectively, showed the longest lifetime and shortest chemo-mechanical oscillation delay. The synthesis of tougher and faster responding entangled gels expands the function and application of BZ self-oscillating gels.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
化学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Soft Matter
·
2024
·Vol. 20
·期 21
·4246-4256
·
IF 2.9
Yuying Sun,Yanli Men,Shiyu Liu,Xiuxiu Wang,Chensha Li
The self-oscillation of objects that perform continuous and periodic motions upon unchanging and constant stimuli is highly important for intelligent actuators, advanced robotics, and biomedical machines. Liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) materials are superior to traditional stimuli-responsive polymeric materials in the development of self-oscillators because of their reversible, large and anisotropic shape-changing ability, fast response ability and versatile structural design. In addition, fiber-shaped oscillators have attracted much interest due to their agility, flexibility and diverse oscillation modes. Herein, we present a strategy for fabricating fiber-shaped LCE self-oscillators using soft tubes as molds. Through the settlement of different configuration states of the soft tubes, the prepared fiber-shaped LCE oscillators can perform continuous rotational self-oscillation or up-and-down shifting self-oscillation under constant light stimuli, which are realized by photoinduced repetitive self-winding motion and self-waving motion, respectively. The mechanism of self-oscillating movements is attributed to the local temperature oscillation of LCE fibers caused by repetitive self-shadowing effects. LCE self-oscillators can operate stably over many oscillating cycles without obvious performance attenuation, revealing good robustness. Our work offers a versatile way by which LCE self-oscillators can be conveniently designed and fabricated in bulk and at low cost, and broadens the road for developing self-oscillating materials for biological robotics and health care machines.
研究领域:
材料科学
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智能机器人
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生物医学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
Membranes
·
2022
·Vol. 12
·期 7
·642
·
IF 4.562
Xue Xu,Jing Liu,Min Cao,Jian Zhang,Xinlu Huang,Xu Hou
Liquid gating membranes with molecular-level smooth liquid lining layers break through the limitations of traditional porous membrane materials in gas transport control. Owing to the stable, self-healing, and reconfigurable properties, liquid gating membranes have shown wide application prospects in microfluidics, intelligent valves, chemical reactions, and beyond. Here, we develop a periodic gas transport control system based on the self-oscillating liquid gating membrane. Under continuous gas injection, the gas–liquid interface is reversibly deformed, enabling self-oscillating behavior for discontinuous and periodic gas transport without the need for any complex external changes to the original system. Meanwhile, our experimental analysis reveals that the periodic time and periodic gas release in the system can be regulated. Based on the cycle stability of the system, we further demonstrate the controllability of the system for periodic droplet manipulation in microfluidics. Looking forward, it will offer new opportunities for various applications, such as pneumatic robots, gas-involved chemical reactions, droplet microfluidics, and beyond.
研究领域:
材料科学
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化学工程
·
微流体技术
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B
·
2022
·
IF 3.466
Jing Wang,Lin Ren,Zhan Yu,Rui Teng,Changwei Pan,Ling Yuan,Irving R. Epstein,Qingyu Gao
The Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) self-oscillating gel is a unique actuator suited for studying the behavior of intelligent soft robots. However, the traditional BZ self-oscillating polyacrylamide (PAAm) gel is easily broken and is slow to response to stimuli, which limits its practical application. Therefore, the preparation of BZ gels with sensitive responses to external stimuli and desirable, robust mechanical properties remains a challenge. In this work, PAAm-activated nanogels with unpolymerized double bonds are used as nanocrosslinkers to synthesize a nanogel crosslinking-based BZ (NCBZ) self-oscillating PAAm gel, whose mechanical properties, for example, antipuncture, cutting, and tensile properties, are superior to those of traditional PAAm BZ-self-oscillating gels. The oscillatory period of the traditional gel is much longer than that of the corresponding homogeneous BZ system, resulting from the slow response of the gel to changes in redox potential, whereas large, interconnected pores inside the NCBZ gel provide efficient channels for rapid species transport, supporting fast response of the gel, which results in almost the same period of chemomechanical oscillations as the homogeneous system under the same conditions. Scanning electron microscopy results show that the NCBZ gel is more stable than the traditional BZ PAAm gel after 7 h of oscillation. Our results make it possible to prepare robust gel motors and provide promising application prospects for smart soft robots, actuators, sensors, tissue engineering, and other applications.
研究领域:
材料科学
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智能软机器人
·
化学工程
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）