A large-strain, fast-response, and easy-to-manufacture electrothermal actuator based on laser-reduced graphene oxide

In this paper, we have developed a high-performance graphene electrothermal actuator (ETA). The fabrication method is easy, fast, environmentally friendly, and suitable for preparing both largesize and miniature graphene ETAs. When applied with the driving voltage of 65 V, the graphene ETA achieves a large bending angle of 270 degrees with a fast response of 8 s and the recovery process costs 19 s. The large bending deformation is reversible and can be precisely controlled by the driving voltage. A simple robotic hand prepared by using a single graphene ETA can hold the object, which is more than ten times the weight of itself. By virtue of its large-strain, fast response, and easy-to-manufacture, we believe that the graphene ETA has tremendous potential in extensive applications involving biomimetic robotics, artificial muscles, switches, and microsensors in both macroscopic and microscopic fields.