School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, PR China.
State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, PR China.
Carbohydr Polym. 2017 Oct 1;173:526-534. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.05.061. Epub 2017 May 23.
Hydrogel actuator is an intelligent material, which can work as artificial muscle. However, most present hydrogel actuators, due to the inferior mechanical property and uncontrolled folding property, have always resulted in slipping off or the failure of grasping an object with specific shape and required weight. In order to solve this problem, here a tough hydrogel actuator with programmable folding deformation has been prepared by combining the "selective implanting method" and "ionic coordination". The shape and folding angle (from 0 to 180 ) of hydrogel actuator can be precisely controlled by altering the location and size of the implanting parts that seems like the joints of finger. The ionic coordination is not only the force to trigger the folding of hydrogel, but also utilized to reinforce the mechanical property. We believed the superior mechanical and shape-programmable property can endow the hydrogel actuator with great application prospect in soft machine.
水凝胶驱动器是一种智能材料，可以用作人工肌肉。然而，由于较差的机械性能和不可控的折叠性能，大多数现有的水凝胶驱动器总是导致滑脱或无法抓住具有特定形状和所需重量的物体。为了解决这个问题，我们通过结合“选择性植入方法”和“离子配位”，制备了一种具有可编程折叠变形的坚韧水凝胶驱动器。通过改变植入部分的位置和大小，可以精确控制水凝胶驱动器的形状和折叠角度（从 0 到 180 度），植入部分的位置和大小类似于手指的关节。离子配位不仅是触发水凝胶折叠的力，还可以用来增强机械性能。我们相信，优越的机械性能和形状可编程性可以赋予水凝胶驱动器在软机器中具有广阔的应用前景。
