Antifreezing and Stretchable Organohydrogels as Soft Actuators

Yukun Jian; Baoyi Wu; Xiaoxia Le; Yun Liang; Yuchong Zhang; Dachuan Zhang; Ling Zhang; Wei Lu; Jiawei Zhang; Tao Chen

doi:10.34133/2019/2384347

Antifreezing and Stretchable Organohydrogels as Soft Actuators

Research (Wash D C). 2019 Dec 13:2019:2384347. doi: 10.34133/2019/2384347. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Yukun Jian^{1

2}, Baoyi Wu¹, Xiaoxia Le^{1

2}, Yun Liang^{1

2}, Yuchong Zhang^{1

2}, Dachuan Zhang¹, Ling Zhang^{1

2}, Wei Lu^{1

2}, Jiawei Zhang^{1

2}, Tao Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China.

Abstract

Inspired by the freezing tolerance performances found in living creatures, an effect approach is presented to develop novel antifreezing polymeric organohydrogel actuators. Through construction of a bilayer hydrogel including a nonresponsive polyacrylamide (PAAm) layer and a pH-responsive polyacrylic acid (PAA) layer in the presence of a mixed solvent of water and glycerol, organohydrogel actuators that could produce various shape deformations at subzero temperatures have been achieved, and the actuating speed could be tuned by adjusting the temperature and the ratio between glycerol and water. Moreover, a series of application demonstrations including a weightlifting robot, artificial valve, and robotic arm have been displayed. In addition, by introducing the ionic compound KI into the glycerol-based organogel, flexible conductors that could perform stable sensing performance over a wide range of temperatures from -30°C to 60°C have been developed.