Fabrication of photothermally sensitive hydrogel soft actuator
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초록
내용
Soft actuators which can change their shape or size in response to external stimuli like electricity, heat, light, chemical, pH or humidity have become an attractive research topic with the recent development of soft robotics. In general, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) is a thermo-responsive polymer that exhibit a lower critical solution temperature at ~32 ℃ in aqueous phase. In this study, we synthesized thermo-sensitive PNIPAAm-based hydrogels functionalized with photothermal factor, which have high light absorption and transform photon energy into heat. The equilibrium water content (EWC), morphologies, swelling/deswelling kinetics and mechanical properties were investigated. In addition, photothermally triggered bending motion was determined under near-infrared irradiation.