Journal article 194 views
Chiral design of tough spring-shaped hydrogels for smart umbrellas
Mingqi Chen,
Guangjie Song 
,
Bin Ren,
Lin Cai,
Mokarram Hossain ,
Chunyu Chang
,
Bin Ren,
Lin Cai,
Mokarram Hossain ,
Chunyu Chang
Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume: 475, Start page: 146047
Swansea University Author:
Mokarram Hossain
DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.cej.2023.146047
Abstract
Developing hydrogel artificial muscles to mimic the motion of natural muscles has long attracted scientists from the perspective of materials science for potential applications in soft robotics. However, rational design of hydrogel artificial muscles with large stroke, rapid actuation speed, and hig...
| Published in: | Chemical Engineering Journal |
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| ISSN: | 1385-8947 |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2023
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64586 |
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| Abstract: |
Developing hydrogel artificial muscles to mimic the motion of natural muscles has long attracted scientists from the perspective of materials science for potential applications in soft robotics. However, rational design of hydrogel artificial muscles with large stroke, rapid actuation speed, and high work capacity remains a major challenge. Herein, we reported two kinds of chiral spring-shaped hydrogels that were prepared via consecutive shaping process (e.g., stretching, twisting, folding, coiling, and fixing). By switching the chirality of coil, homochiral muscle and heterochiral muscle were obtained, respectively. Homochiral muscle could rapidly expand to 560% with an average speed of 6.7 % s−1 in response to NIR irradiation, whose maximum work capacity reached 45 J kg−1. On contrary, heterochiral muscle contracted 69% within 1 min under NIR irradiation with a maximum work capacity of 33 J kg−1. Interestingly, the parasol containing homochiral muscles opened autonomously during dehydration process, while the umbrellas containing heterochiral muscle could opened rapidly when water was applied. This work provided an innovative strategy for developing tough hydrogel muscles with opposite chiralities. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFE0123700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52073217, 51873164), and Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Province (2020BCA079). |
| Start Page: |
146047 |