The application of graphene based materials for actuators

Compared with traditional actuation materials, such as piezoelectric, ferroelectric and conducting polymer materials which suffered from low flexibility, high driving voltages and low energy efficiency, graphene exhibits outstanding mechanical, electrical, optical properties and chemical stability, which made it a good candidate for actuation materials. In this review, the recent progress in graphene based actuators induced by electric, electrochemical, optical and other stimulations are summarized. Different actuation mechanisms and future developments are discussed. Graphene based materials, combining their many excellent properties, such as material abundance, super mechanical strength with excellent actuation performance, are expected to have great potential for the application in next generation actuators.