电机械聚合物人工肌肉材料的研究进展

模拟肌肉组织进行信息传递、能量转换、传动的人工肌肉驱动器成为新材料研发焦点。智能聚合物可以对外界刺激发生响应,产生形变,是制备人工肌肉的良好材料,已被广泛地用于机器人与智能机械系统,成为众多肌肉驱动器中的研究重点。本文主要总结电机械聚合物人工肌肉材料的研究进展,论述了静电作用、电热驱动、水/湿度驱动三种驱动方式的工作机理和研究进展,分析了聚合物人工肌肉材料驱动器发展过程中受到限制的关键因素,并对未来人工肌肉材料研究提出展望。     

电活性聚合物柔性智能驱动材料的建模、控制及应用综述

随着电活性聚合物(EAP)在仿生机器人、柔性传感器、能源等领域的广泛应用,对其研究也日益深入。本文对EAP智能驱动材料建模、控制及应用方面的研究进展进行了系统性的梳理,为后续材料应用奠定基础。首先,对EAP材料的分类和电致动原理进行了概述,然后整理了EAP驱动材料模型建立以及控制器设计,最后归纳了EAP在材料性能、智能结构设计、系统建模和运动控制策略方面存在的研究难题,并展望了未来的研究方向。     

电致变形聚合物材料及其应用

电致变形聚合物材料(EISCP)是一类对电刺激有变形响应的材料,即在某一电场或电流的间歇或持续刺激下,该材料的形状会做出特定的变形响应,当电场或电流消失后,形状又会趋于恢复。EISCP在智能器件、人工肌肉、仿生机器人以及药物载体等领域有广泛的应用前景。本文提出将EISCP的变形机理分为电场响应型与电流响应型两大类,并进一步将两种机理细致划分。另外,从材料出发,综述了基于介电弹性体、铁电聚合物、电致液晶弹性体、电致伸缩接枝弹性体、碳纳米管复合材料、离子聚合物-金属复合材料、电致变形水凝胶、电致形状记忆聚合物及导电聚合物九种EISCP的研究进展及应用。最后,基于目前EISCP存在的一些问题(如响应速度慢、变形量小以及变形响应高度依赖"开-关"刺激等),对其发展做出了展望。     

表面引发聚合新进展及应用

综述了近年来聚合物刷合成与应用方面的新进展.简要介绍了利用表面引发原子转移自由基聚合(SI-ATRP)制备聚合物刷的历程和重要进展.重点论述了通过电化学、光诱导以及牺牲阳极技术、仿生合成等发展了多种表面引发ATRP新方法,基于如何将聚合物从分子尺度过渡到微米尺度的思考,实现了多尺度聚合物刷结构的制备.简要综述了聚合物刷在以下3个方面的应用研究:(1)智能驱动,利用聚合物刷构象变化,实现微悬臂驱动、辅助放大的电驱动以及仿毛毛虫运动.(2)生物润滑,利用聚合物的环境响应行为实现了对摩擦系数的调控,并发展了球刷型润滑材料.(3)表面防污,表面接枝含离子液体官能团的聚合物刷,并与仿生技术相结合,利用化学组成和结构化协同效应,得到一系列高性能低毒海洋防污界面材料.     

响应性交联液晶高分子仿生致动器的研究进展

交联液晶高分子兼具液晶取向有序性和交联聚合物熵弹性等特点,能够以动态可调节和可逆的方式来模仿生物体的行为,在仿生器件、柔性机器人、智能表面、生物医药等领域具有良好的应用前景.本综述总结了近几年智能响应性交联液晶高分子在仿生致动器方面的研究进展,从响应性交联液晶高分子的结构和驱动机理出发,讨论了响应性交联液晶高分子的合成工艺、制备技术和成型方法,以及响应性交联液晶高分子对光、热、磁、湿度的响应.此外,介绍了响应性交联液晶高分子致动器在柔性机器人、人工肌肉、微流体运输等领域的应用.最后,对响应性交联液晶高分子的发展前景进行了展望.这项工作主要讨论了响应性交联液晶高分子,旨在为具有新颖功能和更有挑战性的智能微型致动器提供新的设计思路.     

烯碳材料在人工肌肉领域的应用进展

随着仿生机器人、智能控制及人工智能等领域的发展,传统的机械驱动方式已无法满足相关领域对致动系统提出的柔性、高效及多源刺激响应性等要求,因此需发展新型的人工肌肉材料。以碳纳米管和石墨烯为代表的烯碳材料具有轻质、高强、高电导率和柔性等特征,在人工肌肉领域展现出了巨大的应用潜力。以烯碳材料为基元构筑宏观组装体材料,或以烯碳材料为添加相制备纳米复合材料,可在微观和宏观架起桥梁,实现烯碳材料在人工肌肉领域的应用。本文基于上述两种应用形式,综述了烯碳材料在人工肌肉领域的应用进展。首先从一维纤维和二维薄膜的烯碳人工肌肉宏观表现形态出发,介绍了既作为结构材料,又提供了响应、驱动功能的烯碳材料在人工肌肉中的应用。接着从机电性能、可编程的响应形变以及传感功能三个方向,介绍了烯碳材料作为增强赋能相在人工肌肉材料中的功能性应用。最后阐述了基于烯碳材料人工肌肉的机遇与挑战。     

生物可降解电活性苯胺聚合物

导电聚合物通过其独特的电活性或导电性,可智能地传递或控制细胞电化学信号,从而定向诱导组织器官的再生修复,已成为神经和组织工程领域研究的热点.本文主要介绍了我们实验室生物可降解电活性苯胺聚合物的相关工作,介绍了以苯胺齐聚物与可降解高分子接枝或嵌段制备具有电活性、可生物降解的新型导电聚合物及其在细胞培养和组织工程方面的研究.介绍了静电纺丝制备电活性纳米纤维的概况.苯胺齐聚物与可降解聚合物的接枝和嵌段可同时赋予其电活性、生物相容性和生物可降解性.可生物降解的电活性聚合物是未来生物组织工程领域的发展趋势之一,具有广阔的应用前景.     

《仿生材料化学》专辑序言——向大自然学习构筑新材料与新体系

从工业4.0到中国制造2025,材料——作为人类社会进步的基石,每一次的重大突破都改变着人类的生产生活方式.每一种新材料的诞生,都有可能颠覆以往的技术手段,加速人类文明的历史进程.因而,设计开发具有独特性能的新材料成为材料、化学、物理等领域科学家们的共同目标.20世纪60年代,"仿生"一词开始出现和使用,标志着仿生学作...     

纤维型人工肌肉的研究进展

近年来,随着人工智能领域的不断发展,柔性机器人开始兴起.为了满足人们对人机交互和环境适应性的新要求,柔性驱动器作为柔性机器人的关键部件受到了广泛的关注.人工肌肉作为最常见的柔性驱动器之一,它对外界刺激反应迅速,并且能够响应刺激产生旋转,收缩和伸长等运动.在各种人工肌肉中,纤维型人工肌肉以其优异的驱动性能和广阔的应用前景...     

智能纤维的设计思路及制备技术

智能纤维在材料领域中具有重要的地位和独特的用途.本文综述了智能纤维的总体设计思路,包括仿生学、分子设计和复合技术;讨论了智能纤维的主要制备技术,包括智能成纤聚合物直接纺丝、接枝共聚、交联、共混与添加、复合纺丝与杂化、高分子化学反应以及后处理等;并建议我国应该重视智能纤维的研究开发.     

Fabrication of Light‐Triggered Soft Artificial Muscles via a Mixed‐Matrix Membrane Strategy

Artificial muscles triggered by light are of great importance, especially for the development of non‐contact and remotely controlled materials. Common materials for synthesis of photoinduced artificial muscles typically rely on polymer‐based photomechanical materials. Herein, we are able to prepare artificial muscles using a mixed‐matrix membrane strategy to incorporate photomechanical molecular crystals with connective polymers (e.g. PVDF). The formed hybrid materials inherit not only the advantages of the photomechanical crystals, including faster light response, higher Young's modulus and ordered structure, but also the elastomer properties from polymers. This new type of artificial muscles demonstrates various muscle movements, including lifting objects, grasping objects, crawling and swimming, triggered by light irradiation. These results open a new direction to prepare light‐driven artificial muscles based on molecular crystals.     

Extraordinarily large swelling energy of iodine‐treated poly(vinyl alcohol) demonstrated by jump of a film

Organic material characteristics of volume change and stress generation have attracted the attention of many researchers aiming to develop chemomechanical systems such as artificial muscles and polymer engines having the advantages of high energy density and silent operation. Although polymer gels offer a relatively large actuator stroke, their mechanical properties are relatively poor and the working temperature is relatively low, often limited by the evaporation of liquid if contained. We have developed an iodine‐treated poly(vinyl alcohol) having extraordinarily large vapor‐induced deswelling stress reaching 59 MPa, which is one to two orders of magnitude greater than those of ordinary polymer gels. Furthermore, this material has extremely large volumetric and gravimetric energy densities reaching 1.3 × 10⁶ J m^?3 and 9.6 × 10² J kg^?1, respectively, and an elastic modulus of a few GPa and is heat‐resistant to at least 200 °C. The high performance of this material can be demonstrated by a jump of a film. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1357–1365     

Synergistic Covalent and Supramolecular Polymers for Mechanically Robust but Dynamic Materials

Nature has engineered delicate synergistic covalent and supramolecular polymers (CSPs) to achieve advanced life functions, such as the thin filaments that assist in muscle contraction. Constructing artificial synergistic CSP materials with bioinspired mechanically adaptive features, however, represents a challenging goal. Here, we report an artificial CSP system to illustrate the integration of a covalent polymer (CP) and a supramolecular polymer (SP) in a synergistic fashion, along with the emergence of notable mechanical and dynamic properties which are unattainable when the two polymers are formed individually. The synergistic effect relies on the peculiar network structures of the SP and CPs, which endow the resultant CSPs with overall improved mechanical performance in terms of the stiffness, strength, stretchability, toughness, and elastic recovery. Moreover, the dynamic properties of the SP, including self‐healing, stimuli‐responsiveness, and reprocessing, are also retained in the CSPs, thus leading to their application as programmable and tunable materials.     

Assembled cation‐exchange/anion‐exchange polypyrrole layers as new simplified artificial muscles

A simplified artificial muscle has been constructed by assembling different polypyrrole structures in the same synthesis process. This produces not only “all‐polymeric” but rather a new generation of “all‐conducting‐polymer” artificial muscles, capable of moving in electrolytic media by an electrical current application with no evidence of delamination after several cycles. Suitable devices can be constructed for biomedical applications, based on this conducting polymer film. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Facile fabrication of conducting polymer hydrogels via supramolecular self-assembly

We describe a simple and versatile method to fabricate conducting polymer hydrogels via supramolecular self-assembly between polymers and multivalent cations; the as-prepared hydrogels are potentially applicable in the fields of electrosensors, chemical release and artificial muscles.     

Development of a regenerable cell culture system that senses and releases dead cells

We developed a rapidly regenerable cell culture system in which the cell culture substrate detects cell death and selectively releases the dead cells. This culture material was achieved by combining a detector that responds to the signal from the dead cells and an actuator to release the dead cells. Benzo-18-crown-6-acrylamide (BCAm) with a pendant crown ether receptor was used as the sensor to recognize cellular signals and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) was used as the actuator. This copolymer of NIPAM and BCAm can respond to potassium ions and change its nature from hydrophobic to hydrophilic at the culture temperature of 37 degrees C. Living cells concentrate potassium ion internally; when cells die, potassium ions are released. The polymer surface recognizes the potassium ions released from the dead cells, the NIPAM hydrates, and the dead cells are selectively detached. This in vitro culture system is a novel one in which artificial culture materials work cooperatively with cellular metabolism by responding to this signal from the cells, thereby realizing in vitro tissue regeneration partly mimicking the mechanisms of in vivo homeostasis.     

Electromechanical actuation of composite material from carbon nanotubes and ionomeric polymer

An actuating system composed of nafion ionomeric polymer coated with single-walled carbon nanotubes electrodes was studied as an electromechanical actuator. The actuator gives a sizable mechanical response to low voltages (turn-on voltage of approximately 2.5 V) under open-air conditions, i.e., in the absence of a surrounding supporting electrolyte. The actuator is active under both dc and ac bias and has a strong resonance at low frequencies which is dependent upon the size of the actuator. The actuator was studied using Fourier transform infrared and vis-NIR spectroscopies, cyclic voltammetry, and by the current-time response under an applied step voltage. An analytical model is proposed to understand the electrical behavior, which is consistent with the spectroscopic results.