Smart gripper based on electric-triggered superhydrophobic polyurethane arrays coated bucky gel composite membrane for reversible capture/release of both solid and liquid

Recently, intelligent adhesive materials inspired by gecko adhesive systems have attracted great attention due to their wide applications, for example, as the gripper for capture and release of object. However, almost all existing grippers can only be applied for capturing/releasing single solid or liquid. Herein, to overcome this shortcoming, we advance a new strategy that through coating the superhydrophobic polyurethane (SPU) film onto the bucky gel actuator (BGA), and report an electric-triggered composite membrane. The membrane can bend itself under applying an external electric field and restore to the initial state as the electric filed is removed. The smart controllability allows the membrane to have a tunable adhesion to both solid and water droplet. Moreover, based on the obtained membrane, a smart gripper was fabricated, and in-situ capture/release of both solid and water droplet can be achieved. This work reports a new composite membrane with the tunable adhesion and a functional gripper that is useful for both solid and water droplet, which can not only overcome the shortcoming present in current research, but also provides a fresh idea for the designing and application of smart adhesive devices.