Sheng Jie, Jiang Shengkun, Geng Tie, Huang Zhengqiang, Li Jiquan, Jiang Lin
Henan Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Automotive Composite Materials, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Henan International Joint Laboratory of Carbon Composition Material, School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2024 Apr 19;16(8):1144. doi: 10.3390/polym16081144.
Polymer-based actuators have gained extensive attention owing to their potential applications in aerospace, soft robotics, etc. However, poor mechanical properties, the inability of multi-stimuli response and programmable deformation, and the costly fabrication procedure have significantly hindered their practical application. Herein, these issues are overcome via a simple and scalable one-step molding method. The actuator is fabricated by hot-pressing commercial unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy prepregs with a commodity PC membrane. Notable CTE differences between the CF and PC layers endow the bilayer actuator with fast and reliable actuation deformation. Benefiting from the high strength of CF, the actuator exhibits excellent mechanical performance. Moreover, the anisotropy of CF endows the actuator with design flexibility. Furthermore, the multifunction of CF makes the actuator capable of responding to thermal, optical, and electrical stimulation simultaneously. Based on the bilayer actuator, we successfully fabricated intelligent devices such as light-driven biomimetic flowers, intelligent grippers, and gesture-simulating apparatuses, which further validate the programmability and multi-stimuli response characteristics of this actuator. Strikingly, the prepared gripper possesses a grasping capacity approximately 31.2 times its own weight. It is thus believed that the concept presented paves the way for building next-generation robust robotics.
基于聚合物的致动器因其在航空航天、软体机器人等领域的潜在应用而受到广泛关注。然而，其机械性能差、无法实现多刺激响应和可编程变形以及制造过程成本高昂，严重阻碍了它们的实际应用。在此，通过一种简单且可扩展的一步成型方法克服了这些问题。该致动器是通过将商用单向碳纤维/环氧树脂预浸料与商品聚碳酸酯（PC）膜热压而成。碳纤维（CF）层和PC层之间显著的热膨胀系数（CTE）差异赋予了双层致动器快速且可靠的驱动变形能力。得益于CF的高强度，该致动器具有优异的机械性能。此外，CF的各向异性赋予了致动器设计灵活性。再者，CF的多功能性使致动器能够同时响应热、光和电刺激。基于这种双层致动器，我们成功制造了诸如光驱动仿生花、智能夹具和手势模拟装置等智能设备，这进一步验证了该致动器的可编程性和多刺激响应特性。引人注目的是，所制备的夹具具有约为其自身重量31.2倍的抓取能力。因此，人们认为所提出的概念为构建下一代坚固的机器人技术铺平了道路。
