title: Optically- and thermally-responsive programmable materials based on carbon nanotube-hydrogel polymer composites.
abstract: A simple approach is described to fabricate reversible, thermally- and optically responsive actuators utilizing composites of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) loaded with single-walled carbon nanotubes. With nanotube loading at concentrations of 0.75 mg/mL, we demonstrate up to 5 times enhancement to the thermal response time of the nanotube-pNIPAM hydrogel actuators caused by the enhanced mass transport of water molecules. Additionally, we demonstrate the ability to obtain ultrafast near-infrared optical response in nanotube-pNIPAM hydrogels under laser excitation enabled by the strong absorption properties of nanotubes. The work opens the framework to design complex and programmable self-folding materials, such as cubes and flowers, with advanced built-in features, including tunable response time as determined by the nanotube loading.
authors: Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors: Xiaobo
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: Cary L
authors: CL
authors: Pint
authors: Min Hyung
authors: MH
authors: Lee
authors: Bryan Edward
authors: BE
authors: Schubert
authors: Arash
authors: A
authors: Jamshidi
authors: Kuniharu
authors: K
authors: Takei
authors: Hyunhyub
authors: H
authors: Ko
authors: Andrew
authors: A
authors: Gillies
authors: Rizia
authors: R
authors: Bardhan
authors: Jeffrey J
authors: JJ
authors: Urban
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Wu
authors: Ronald
authors: R
authors: Fearing
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Javey