Tailoring conductive nanofiller alignment for high actuation strain and output force in electroactive polymers.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41271742.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-65228-7 and PMC identifier 12638966.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
An intrinsic conflict between high deformability and rigidity hinders the development of electroactive polymer (EAP)-based soft robots. Here, we employ an external electric field to align Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-coated carbon nanotubes (Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>@CNTs) in a poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorotrifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE)) matrix. Compared with pure P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE), the thickness strain of nanocomposites with horizontally and vertically aligned Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>@CNTs increases by 473% and 814%, respectively. It results in a high bending angle up to 215° for their actuator beams. Importantly, the horizontally aligned Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>@CNTs enhance the local stiffness via 'face-enhanced effect', yielding a high output force per unit volume (1.25 mN/mm<sup>3</sup> at 30 V/μm). It is not only ~346% higher than pure P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE) but also higher than the reported ceramic actuators. Accordingly, the soft robots made by the designed nanocomposite actuators could climb slopes up to 52° and carry loads equivalent to eight times their body mass. Consequently, this modulating strategy develops a high-performance actuation for soft robots.