Wang Zijun, Wang Yang, Wang Zhijian, He Qiguang, Li Chenghai, Cai Shengqiang
Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 May 26;13(20):24164-24172. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c05082. Epub 2021 May 11.
Additive manufacturing of electrically responsive soft actuators is of great importance in designing and constructing novel soft robots and soft machines. However, there are very limited options for 3D-printable and electrically responsive soft materials. Herein, we report a strategy of 3D printing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel actuators that are electrically controllable. We print a jellyfish-like actuator from PVC ink, which can achieve 130° bending in less than 5 s. With the multi-material 3D printing technique, we have further printed a soft actuator with a stiffness gradient that can generate undulatory motion. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we show that a 3D-printed PVC gel-based smart window can change its transparency upon the application of voltage. The 3D printing strategy developed in this article may expand the potential applications of electrically responsive soft materials in diverse engineering fields.
电响应性软致动器的增材制造在新型软机器人和软机器的设计与构建中具有重要意义。然而，可用于3D打印且具有电响应性的软材料选择非常有限。在此，我们报告一种3D打印聚氯乙烯（PVC）凝胶致动器的策略，该致动器具有电可控性。我们用PVC油墨打印出一种水母状致动器，它能在不到5秒的时间内实现130°弯曲。通过多材料3D打印技术，我们进一步打印出一种具有刚度梯度的软致动器，该致动器能产生波动运动。作为概念验证演示，我们展示了一个基于3D打印PVC凝胶的智能窗户在施加电压时可以改变其透明度。本文开发的3D打印策略可能会扩大电响应性软材料在不同工程领域的潜在应用。
