智能凝胶对水流量自适应控制的仿生研究

制备了多孔聚乙烯醇缩甲醛凝胶(PVFM),研究了其对水流量控制的自适应性能.结果表明,多孔聚乙烯醇缩甲醛凝胶具有很快的吸水/脱水速度和膨胀应力变化的灵敏响应性.结合弹性水管受压变形的控制结构,研究了材料感知土壤含水量的变化和对滴灌流量进行动态调节的智能特性,发现止水/放水周期可控制在1 h以内.

Self-adaptive control of smart hydrogels to water flow

Inspiration is from the plant root adjusting self-adaptively its structure and function according to the change of water content in soil; a macroporous polyvinyl formal hydrogel (PVFM) with water-content sensitivity was synthesized, and utilized as sensor and actuator to control automatically the drip-irrigation flow. PVFM hydrogel shows rather fast swelling/deswelling rate, and its mechanical behavior is sensitive to the change of water content, as a result the flow rate is modulated accordingly. This smart hydrogel can control self-adaptively water flow according to humidity of soil; the on-off cycle of flow control is less than 1 hour. It has the large potential applications in the aired regions for water-saving irrigation, humidity adjustment, desert control and so on.