title: Soft electrothermal actuators using silver nanowire heaters.
abstract: Low-voltage and extremely flexible electrothermal bimorph actuators were fabricated in a simple, efficient and scalable process. The bimorph actuators were made of flexible silver nanowire (AgNW) based heaters, which exhibited a fast heating rate of 18 °C s-1and stable heating performance with large bending. The actuators offered the largest bending angle (720°) or curvature (2.6 cm-1) at a very low actuation voltage (0.2 V sq-1or 4.5 V) among all types of bimorph actuators that have been reported to date. The actuators can be designed and fabricated in different configurations that can achieve complex patterns and shapes upon actuation. Two applications of this type of soft actuators were demonstrated towards biomimetic robotics - a crawling robot that can walk spontaneously on ratchet surfaces and a soft gripper that is capable of manipulating lightweight and delicate objects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. yong_zhu@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2076-162X
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. yong_zhu@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Jianxun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. yong_zhu@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. yong_zhu@ncsu.edu.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu