Highly Bidirectional Bendable Actuator Engineered by LCST-UCST Bilayer Hydrogel with Enhanced Interface
作者：Jian Li, Qiyue Ma, Yue Xu, Mingming Yang, Qiang Wu, Fenfen Wang,* and Pingchuan Sun*
關鍵字：thermoresponsive, bilayer hydrogel, UCST polymer, LCST polymer, actuators
論文來源：期刊
具體來源：ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2020, 12, 55290?55298
發表時間：2020年
Thermoresponsive hydrogel-based actuators are highly important for fundamental research and industrial applications, while the preparation of temperature-driven bilayer hydrogel actuators with rapid response to bend and recover properties remains a challenge. To date, most temperature-driven bilayer hydrogel actuators are based on polymers only with a lower
critical solution temperature (LCST) or with an upper critical solution temperature (UCST), which need more time to bend and recover just in a small range of bending angle. Herein, we propose a new strategy to design and synthesize a fully temperature-driven bilayer hydrogel actuator, which consists of a poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) (NAGA) layer with a UCST-type volume phase change and a poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (NIPAM)-Laponite nanocomposite layer with an LCST-type volume phase change. Due to the complementary UCST and LCST behavior of the two selected polymers, both layers have opposite thermoresponsive swelling
and shrinkage properties at low and high temperatures; this imbues the hydrogel actuator with rapid thermoresponsive bending and recovery ability, as well as a large bending angle. In addition, the incorporation of Laponite nanosheets in PNIPAM layer not only improves the mechanical property of actuators but also provides the excellent bonding ability of the two-layer interface, which prevents delamination caused by excessive local stress on the interface during the bending process. Thanks to high-performance behavior, the actuator can act as an effective and sensitive actuator, such as a gripper to capture, transport, and release an object, or as an electrical circuit switch to turn on and off a light-emitting diode (LED). Overall, such hydrogel actuator may provide new insights for the design and fabrication of artificial intelligence materials.