Laser-Induced Graphene for Electrothermally Controlled, Mechanically Guided, 3D Assembly and Human-Soft Actuators Interaction.

Journal: Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
PMID: 32173920

Abstract

Mechanically guided, 3D assembly has attracted broad interests, owing to its compatibility with planar fabrication techniques and applicability to a diversity of geometries and length scales. Its further development requires the capability of on-demand reversible shape reconfigurations, desirable for many emerging applications (e.g., responsive metamaterials, soft robotics). Here, the design, fabrication, and modeling of soft electrothermal actuators based on laser-induced graphene (LIG) are reported and their applications in mechanically guided 3D assembly and human-soft actuators interaction are explored. Over 20 complex 3D architectures are fabricated, including reconfigurable structures that can reshape among three distinct geometries. Also, the structures capable of maintaining 3D shapes at room temperature without the need for any actuation are realized by fabricating LIG actuators at an elevated temperature. Finite element analysis can quantitatively capture key aspects that govern electrothermally controlled shape transformations, thereby providing a reliable tool for rapid design optimization. Furthermore, their applications are explored in human-soft actuators interaction, including elastic metamaterials with human gesture-controlled bandgap behaviors and soft robotic fingers which can measure electrocardiogram from humans in an on-demand fashion. Other demonstrations include artificial muscles, which can lift masses that are about 110 times of their weights and biomimetic frog tongues which can prey insects.

Authors

  • Yun Ling
    Department of Infectious Disease, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Shanghai 200025, China.
  • Wenbo Pang
    Software College, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
  • Xiaopeng Li
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Shivam Goswami
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Zheng Xu
    Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information, Beijing Jiaotong University, Ministry of Education Beijing 100044 China zhengxu@bjtu.edu.cn ddsong@bjtu.edu.cn.
  • David Stroman
    Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Yachao Liu
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Qihui Fei
    Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Yadong Xu
    School of Automation and Electrical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China. Electronic address: 1019340972@qq.com.
  • Ganggang Zhao
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Bohan Sun
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Jingwei Xie
    Department of Surgery-Transplant and Mary and Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68130, USA.
  • Guoliang Huang
    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA.
  • Yihui Zhang
    Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing  100084, China.
  • Zheng Yan

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