Issue 44, 2017

A small graphene oxide sheet/polyvinylidene fluoride bilayer actuator with large and rapid responses to multiple stimuli

Abstract

A high-performance actuator should be able to deliver large-shape deformations, fast actuations and sensitive responses to multiple stimuli. Here, we report such an actuator constructed from one layer of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and another layer of small sheets of graphene oxide (SGO) with a negative CTE. The opposite deformations of both actuation layers make the SGO/PVDF bilayer actuator highly sensitive to the temperature stimulus with a large bending sensitivity of 1.5 cm−1 °C−1. Upon irradiation with 60 mW cm−2 infrared light, this SGO/PVDF bilayer actuator displayed an extremely rapid tip displacement rate of 140 mm s−1. Furthermore, this actuator can also sensitively respond to moisture because of its SGO layer, showing a curvature change from −22 to 13 cm−1 upon changing the relative humidity (RH) from 11% to 86%. This actuator can generate a contractile or relaxed stress 18 times that of mammalian skeletal muscle, under light irradiation or moisture with a response time as short as 1 s, being capable of lifting an object with a weight 80 times that of itself. Furthermore, it also showed excellent stability and repeatability.

Graphical abstract: A small graphene oxide sheet/polyvinylidene fluoride bilayer actuator with large and rapid responses to multiple stimuli

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Sept. 2017
Accepted
11 Okt. 2017
First published
11 Okt. 2017

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 17465-17470

A small graphene oxide sheet/polyvinylidene fluoride bilayer actuator with large and rapid responses to multiple stimuli

G. Xu, M. Zhang, Q. Zhou, H. Chen, T. Gao, C. Li and G. Shi, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 17465 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR07116G

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