Journal
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Volume 60, Issue 40, Pages 21890-21898Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202107281
Keywords
actuator; aggregation-induced emission; carbon dots; fluorescent gel; soft robot
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21774138, 52073297, 51773215]
- Sino-German Mobility Program [M-0424]
- Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences [QYZDB-SSW-SLH036]
- National Key Research and Development Program of China [2019YFC1606603]
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences [2019297]
- K.C. Wong Education Foundation [GJTD-2019-13]
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The study proposes the use of hydrophobic carbon dots to construct an aggregation-induced emission active glycol CDs polymer gel, which can be used for anisotropic bilayer soft actuators that undergo shape and color changes on water surfaces, leading to autonomous locomotion.
Some living organisms such as the octopus have fantastic abilities to simultaneously swim away and alter body color/morphology for disguise and self-protection, especially when there is a threat perception. However, it is still quite challenging to construct artificial soft actuators with octopus-like synergistic shape/color change and directional locomotion behaviors, but such systems could enhance the functions of soft robotics dramatically. Herein, we proposed to utilize unique hydrophobic carbon dots (CDs) with rotatable surficial groups to construct the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) active glycol CDs polymer gel, which could be further employed to be interfacially bonded to an elastomer to produce anisotropic bilayer soft actuator. When putting the actuator on a water surface, glycol spontaneously diffused out from the gel layer to allow water intake, resulting in a color change from a blue dispersion fluorescence to red AIE and a shape deformation, as well as a large surface tension gradient that can promote its autonomous locomotion. Based on these findings, artificial soft swimming robots with octopus-like synergistic shape/color change and directional swimming motion were demonstrated. This study provides an elegant strategy to develop advanced multi-functional bio-inspired intelligent soft robotics.
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