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Soft electrothermal actuators are of great interest in diverse application domains for their simplicity, compliance, and ease of control. However, the very nature of thermally induced mechanical actuation sets inherent operation…
Multilayer piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) actuators are a promising approach to enhance performance of soft microrobotic systems. In this work, we develop and characterize multilayer PVDF actuators with parallel voltage…
The integration of chirality into functional materials enables control of light-matter interactions beyond binary illumination (on/off). Conventional photoactuators rely on binary modulation, limiting them to unidirectional motion. In…
Hydrogel-based soft actuators can operate in sensitive environments, bridging the gap of rigid machines interacting with soft matter. However, while stimuli-responsive hydrogels can undergo extreme reversible volume changes of up to ~90%,…
Most polymers are long-lasting and produced from monomers derived from fossil fuel sources. Bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics have been proposed as a sustainable alternative. Amongst those available, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) shows…
Photocatalytic water splitting offers a viable and sustainable method for hydrogen production. MXenes, a class of 2D transition-metal carbides/nitrides, have emerged as potential photocatalysts and co-catalysts due to their tunable…
Macroscale robotic systems have demonstrated great capabilities of high speed, precise, and agile functions. However, the ability of soft robots to perform complex tasks, especially in centimeter and millimeter scale, remains limited due to…
It is well recognized that the miniaturization of electromechanical devices will bring a revolution to humanity in the coming decades synonymous with the effects of miniaturizing electronic devices in those previous. An electromechanical…
Active metasurfaces provide unique advantages for on-demand light manipulation at a subwavelength scale for emerging applications of 3D displays, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) glasses, holographic projectors and light detection and…
The development of thermal energy storage materials is the most attractive strategy to harvest the solar energy and increase the energy utilization efficiency. Phase change materials (PCMs) have received much attention in this research…
As emerging atomically ultrathin metal compounds, MXenes show great promise for catalysts and nanoelectronics applications due to the abundant surface terminations and high metallic conductivity. However, the tendency of the interlayer…
Soft actuators that respond to external stimuli play a fundamental role in microscale robotics, active matter, and bio-inspired systems. Among these actuators, photo-thermal hybrid microgels (HMGs) containing plasmonic nanoparticles enable…
Soft robotics is a rapidly growing field that spans the fields of chemistry, materials science, and engineering. Due to the diverse background of the field, there have been contrasting naming schemes such as 'intelligent', 'smart' and…
Stereolithographic 3D-printing (SLA) permits facile fabrication of high-precision microfluidic and lab-on-a-chip devices. SLA photopolymers often yield parts with low mechanical compliancy in sharp contrast to elastomers such as…
Aging populations and the rising prevalence of neurological and musculoskeletal disorders increase the demand for wearable mobility assistive devices that are effective, comfortable, and anatomically compatible. Many existing systems use…
Bio-inspired soft robots have already shown the ability to handle uncertainty and adapt to unstructured environments. However, their availability is partially restricted by time-consuming, costly and highly supervised design-fabrication…
The development of polymer blends has emerged as a strategic approach for designing multifunctional materials with enhanced tailored characteristics. Current work investigates and reports for the first time, the structure-property…
Self-regulated actuators harness material intelligence to enable complex deformations and dynamics, representing a significant advancement in automated soft robotics. However, investigations on self-regulated soft actuators, particularly…
Thermally stable polymers have attracted a lot of interest due to their potential use as the active component in electronic, optical and optoelectronic applications, such as light-emitting diodes, light emitting electrochemical cells,…
The excitation of microresonators using focused intensity modulated light, known as photothermal excitation, is gaining significant attention due to its capacity to accurately excite microresonators without distortions, even in liquid…