Bio-Inspired Hydrogel-Elastomer Actuator with Bidirectional Bending and Dynamic Structural Color.

ABSTRACT: In nature, some creatures can change their body shapes and surface colors simultaneously to respond to the external environments, which greatly inspired researchers in the development of color-tunable soft actuators. In this work, we present a facile method to prepare a smart hydrogel actuator that can bend bidirectionally and change color simultaneously, just like an octopus. The actuator is fabricated by elastomer/hydrogel bilayer and the hydrogel layer was decorated with thermoresponsive microgels as the photonic crystal blocks. Compared with the previously reported poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel-based bilayer hydrogel actuators, which are generally limited to one-directional deformation, the elastomer/hydrogel bilayer actuator prepared in our work exhibits unique bidirectional be

SUBMITTER: Xia Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10574087 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature