High-Performance, Low-Voltage, and Easy-Operable Bending Actuator Based on Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Composites
In this work, we show that embedding super-aligned carbon nanotube sheets into a polymer matrix (polydimethylsiloxane) can remarkably reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion of the polymer matrix by two orders of magnitude. Based on this unique phenomenon, we fabricated a new kind of bending act...
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Published in | ACS nano Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 1588 - 1593 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
American Chemical Society
22.03.2011
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | In this work, we show that embedding super-aligned carbon nanotube sheets into a polymer matrix (polydimethylsiloxane) can remarkably reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion of the polymer matrix by two orders of magnitude. Based on this unique phenomenon, we fabricated a new kind of bending actuator through a two-step method. The actuator is easily operable and can generate an exceptionally large bending actuation with controllable motion at very low driving DC voltages (<700 V/m). Furthermore, the actuator can be operated without electrolytes in the air, which is superior to conventional carbon nanotube actuators. Proposed electrothermal mechanism was discussed and confirmed by our experimental results. The exceptional bending actuation performance together with easy fabrication, low-voltage, and controllable motion demonstrates the potential ability of using this kind of actuator in various applicable areas, such as artificial muscles, microrobotics, microsensors, microtransducers, micromanipulation, microcantilever for medical applications, and so on. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1936-0851 1936-086X |
DOI: | 10.1021/nn102251a |