Issue 11, 2017

Soft electrothermal actuators using silver nanowire heaters

Abstract

Low-voltage and extremely flexible electrothermal bimorph actuators were fabricated in a simple, efficient and scalable process. The bimorph actuators were made of flexible silver nanowire (AgNW) based heaters, which exhibited a fast heating rate of 18 °C s−1 and stable heating performance with large bending. The actuators offered the largest bending angle (720°) or curvature (2.6 cm−1) at a very low actuation voltage (0.2 V sq−1 or 4.5 V) among all types of bimorph actuators that have been reported to date. The actuators can be designed and fabricated in different configurations that can achieve complex patterns and shapes upon actuation. Two applications of this type of soft actuators were demonstrated towards biomimetic robotics – a crawling robot that can walk spontaneously on ratchet surfaces and a soft gripper that is capable of manipulating lightweight and delicate objects.

Graphical abstract: Soft electrothermal actuators using silver nanowire heaters

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Nov 2016
Accepted
11 Jan 2017
First published
13 Jan 2017

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 3797-3805

Soft electrothermal actuators using silver nanowire heaters

S. Yao, J. Cui, Z. Cui and Y. Zhu, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 3797 DOI: 10.1039/C6NR09270E

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