Bioinspired soft robots based on organic polymer-crystal hybrid materials with response to temperature and humidity

作者：Xuesong Yang, Linfeng Lan, Xiuhong Pan, Qi Di, Xiaokong Liu, Liang Li, Pancě Naumov, Hongyu Zhang · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-023-37964-1 · 被引用次数：146 · 研究领域：Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials、Soft Robotics and Applications、Polymer Surface Interaction Studies

The capability of stimulated response by mechanical deformation to induce motion or actuation is the foundation of lightweight organic, dynamic materials for designing light and soft robots. Various biomimetic soft robots are constructed to demonstrate the vast versatility of responses and flexibility in shape-shifting. We now report that the integration of organic molecular crystals and polymers brings about synergistic improvement in the performance of both materials as a hybrid materials class, with the polymers adding hygroresponsive and thermally responsive functionalities to the crystals. The resulting hybrid dynamic elements respond within milliseconds, which represents several orders of magnitude of improvement in the time response relative to some other type of common actuators. Combining molecular crystals with polymers brings crystals as largely overlooked materials much closer to specific applications in soft (micro)robotics and related fields.