Journal
POLYMER
Volume 186, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2019.122037
Keywords
Graphene radicals; Polymerization; Crosslinking
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council (ARC) [FT130100057, IH140100018]
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Polymers are ideal for deformation-induced actuating in soft robotics due to their great physical flexibility. However, creating polymer films with tunable deformation and a sufficient binding strength between layers is a big challenge. In this work, graphene oxide nanosheets with tunable radical contents are prepared for in-situ polymerization and grafting of polymers to achieve chemically crosslinked composites. The radical density and loading of nanosheets control the crosslinking density of a polymer film, which tunes its solvent-absorbing (swelling) capacity. A solvent-responsive polymer actuator that folds and grips an object can be fabricated by assembling two films with different degrees of swelling. Thermal annealing of two polymer strips at 100 degrees C significantly improves the fracture strength from 60 KPa to 380 KPa and the fracture strain from 70% to 170%. The results of this work demonstrate that radical-engineered graphene oxide nanosheets can be used to fabricate smart polymers with tunable bending performance and super interfacial binding strength for applications such as soft robotics.
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