A Bioinspired Swimming and Walking Hydrogel Driven by Light-Controlled Local Density

Lei Wang; Yang Liu; Yao Cheng; Xiuguo Cui; Huiqin Lian; Yongri Liang; Fei Chen; Hao Wang; Wenli Guo; Hangquan Li; Meifang Zhu; Hirotaka Ihara

doi:10.1002/advs.201500084

A Bioinspired Swimming and Walking Hydrogel Driven by Light-Controlled Local Density

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2015 May 15;2(6):1500084. doi: 10.1002/advs.201500084. eCollection 2015 Jun.

Authors

Lei Wang¹, Yang Liu², Yao Cheng², Xiuguo Cui², Huiqin Lian², Yongri Liang², Fei Chen², Hao Wang², Wenli Guo², Hangquan Li³, Meifang Zhu⁴, Hirotaka Ihara⁵

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Lab of Special Elastomer Composite Materials College of Materials Science and Engineering Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology 19 North Qingyuan Road Beijing 102617 P.R. China; College of Materials Science and Engineering Beijing University of Chemical Technology Beijing 100029 P.R. China.
² Beijing Key Lab of Special Elastomer Composite Materials College of Materials Science and Engineering Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology 19 North Qingyuan Road Beijing 102617 P.R. China.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering Beijing University of Chemical Technology Beijing 100029 P.R. China.
⁴ State Key Lab for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials College of Materials Science and Engineering Donghua University 2999 Ren-min Road Shanghai 201620 P.R. China.
⁵ Department of Applied Chemistry and Biochemistry Kumamoto University Kumamoto 860-8555 Japan.

Abstract

A hydrogel exhibits a real-time depth-controllable swimming motion via light-mediated modulation of local density to mimic the volume changes found in the bladders of fish. Moreover, other motions, e.g., rolling, somersaulting, and bipedal-like walking, can also be realized by designing or combining gel shapes, and the location of light.

Keywords: actuator; bioinspired material; graphene; hydrogel; nanocomposite.