Dr. Yu Zhaopeng, Lecturer, from the School of Automotive Engineering recently published the paper "A controllable oil-triggered actuator with aligned microchannel design for implementing precise deformation" in the International renowned journal.
Yu Zhaopeng, lecturer, from the School of Automotive Engineering recently published the title "A controllable oil-triggered actuator with aligned microchannel design for implementing precise deformation" in the internationally renowned journal "Nanoscale" (Area of SCI Division 1, rank top 5%, Chinese Academy of Sciences, IF = 6.895) with the first author and Changshu Institute of Technology as the first completion unit. Inspired by the aligned structures of moisture-responsive pineal scales, they successfully fabricated an oil-responsive Janus actuator composed of a smooth hydrophobic surface and a superhydrophobic surface with different aligned microchannels by simple laser etching, which can reversibly deform and be retained into various desirable shapes when triggered by oil and ethanol molecules. By changing the orientations of the patterned microchannels, one-dimensional folding deformation, twisting, rolling curling and object-inspired architectures can be facilely programmed. Furthermore, various cooperative deformations and complex configurations can be obtained by splicing different oriented microchannels into one actuator, for example, triangle windmills, quadrangular windmills, and artificial bud structures. The tailored structures combined with a variety of responsive materials can be employed for more advanced and potential applications such as in vivo surgery, biomimetic devices, energy harvesting systems, and smart robots.
Thesis link: https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NR03157G
Paper Title：A controllable oil-triggered actuator with aligned microchannel design for implementing precise deformation
Journal：Nanoscale
Abstract：
Soft actuators with the integration of facile preparation, rapid actuation rate, sophisticated motions, and precise control over deformation for application in complex devices are still highly desirable. Inspired by the aligned structures of moisture responsive pineal scales, an oil-triggered Janus actuator composed of a smooth hydrophobic surface and a superhydrophobic surface with aligned microchannels by simple laser etching was fabricated successfully, which can deform into various desirable shapes and recover to the original shape when triggered by oil and ethanol molecules. The aligned microchannel design causes different oil spread distances in the longitudinal and transverse directions, resulting in orientation-controlled bending and twisting with large-scale displacement. By changing the orientations of the patterned microchannels, one-dimensional folding deformation, twisting, rolling curling and object-inspired architectures can be facilely programmed. The reversible oil-triggered actuator will inspire more attractive applications such as in vivo surgery, biomimetic devices, energy harvesting systems and soft robotics.
Figure 1 Precise deformation could be realized on the oil-triggered actuator by designing aligned microchannel structures.
Yu Zhaopeng received the Ph.D. degree in Material Processing Engineering from Jilin University, Changchun, China, in 2017. He is currently a lecturer in the School of Automotive Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, China. His current research interests focus on functional material synthesis and applications, and biologically-inspired design methods.
