Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators
This work presents the development of highly efficient photothermal thin films (PTFs) and the demonstration of their application on miniaturized polymer-based soft actuators. The proposed PTF, which comprises acrylic-based black paint and EGaIn liquid metal (LM) microdroplets, serves as an excellent...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Polymers |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/14/15/2997 |
| _version_ | 1797412564888453120 |
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| author | Wei-Yi Wang Bo-You Lin Yen-Peng Liao Yao-Joe Yang |
| author_facet | Wei-Yi Wang Bo-You Lin Yen-Peng Liao Yao-Joe Yang |
| author_sort | Wei-Yi Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This work presents the development of highly efficient photothermal thin films (PTFs) and the demonstration of their application on miniaturized polymer-based soft actuators. The proposed PTF, which comprises acrylic-based black paint and EGaIn liquid metal (LM) microdroplets, serves as an excellent absorber for efficiently converting near-infrared (NIR) irradiation into heat for actuating liquid-crystal elastomer (LCE) actuators. The introduction of LM microdroplets into the PTFs effectively increases the overall thermal efficiency of PTFs. Miniaturized soft crawlers monolithically integrated with the NIR-driven LCE actuators are also implemented for demonstrating the application of the proposed PTF. The crawler’s locomotion, which is inspired by the rectilinear movement of snakes, is generated with the proposed PTF for inducing the LC-to-isotropic phase transition of the LCEs. The experimental results show that introducing LM microdroplets into the PTF can effectively reduce the thermal time constants of LCE actuators by 70%. Under periodic on/off NIR illumination cycles, the locomotion of crawlers with different dimensions is also demonstrated. The measurement results indicate that the proposed PTF is not only essential for enabling photothermal LCE actuation but also quite efficient and durable for repeated operation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:04:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-51bd03e937ec49469a31ca96477538db |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4360 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:04:59Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Polymers |
| spelling | doaj.art-51bd03e937ec49469a31ca96477538db2023-12-03T12:55:56ZengMDPI AGPolymers2073-43602022-07-011415299710.3390/polym14152997Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer ActuatorsWei-Yi Wang0Bo-You Lin1Yen-Peng Liao2Yao-Joe Yang3Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, TaiwanDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, TaiwanDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, TaiwanDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, TaiwanThis work presents the development of highly efficient photothermal thin films (PTFs) and the demonstration of their application on miniaturized polymer-based soft actuators. The proposed PTF, which comprises acrylic-based black paint and EGaIn liquid metal (LM) microdroplets, serves as an excellent absorber for efficiently converting near-infrared (NIR) irradiation into heat for actuating liquid-crystal elastomer (LCE) actuators. The introduction of LM microdroplets into the PTFs effectively increases the overall thermal efficiency of PTFs. Miniaturized soft crawlers monolithically integrated with the NIR-driven LCE actuators are also implemented for demonstrating the application of the proposed PTF. The crawler’s locomotion, which is inspired by the rectilinear movement of snakes, is generated with the proposed PTF for inducing the LC-to-isotropic phase transition of the LCEs. The experimental results show that introducing LM microdroplets into the PTF can effectively reduce the thermal time constants of LCE actuators by 70%. Under periodic on/off NIR illumination cycles, the locomotion of crawlers with different dimensions is also demonstrated. The measurement results indicate that the proposed PTF is not only essential for enabling photothermal LCE actuation but also quite efficient and durable for repeated operation.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/14/15/2997photothermal filmliquid metalshape-memory polymerliquid-crystal elastomerNIR-driven actuatorrectilinear locomotion |
| spellingShingle | Wei-Yi Wang Bo-You Lin Yen-Peng Liao Yao-Joe Yang Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators Polymers photothermal film liquid metal shape-memory polymer liquid-crystal elastomer NIR-driven actuator rectilinear locomotion |
| title | Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators |
| title_full | Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators |
| title_fullStr | Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators |
| title_full_unstemmed | Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators |
| title_short | Photothermal Thin Films with Highly Efficient NIR Conversion for Miniaturized Liquid-Crystal Elastomer Actuators |
| title_sort | photothermal thin films with highly efficient nir conversion for miniaturized liquid crystal elastomer actuators |
| topic | photothermal film liquid metal shape-memory polymer liquid-crystal elastomer NIR-driven actuator rectilinear locomotion |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/14/15/2997 |
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