Thermo-Electro-Mechanical Characterization of PDMS-Based Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

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

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 bending behavior in accordance with the change of structural color. The bending degrees can be changed from -360° to 270° in response to solution temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 60 °C. At the same time, the surface color changes from red to green, and then to blue, covering the full visible light spectrum. The bending direction and degree of the hydrogel actuator can easily be adjusted by tuning the layer thickness ratio of the elastomer/hydrogel or the composition of the hydrogel. The color-tunable hydrogel-elastomer actuator reported in this work can achieve both programmable deformations and color-changing highly resembling the natural actuating behaviors of creatures.

Progress in Microtopography Optimization of Polymers-Based Pressure/Strain Sensors

Due to the wide application of wearable electronic devices in daily life, research into flexible electronics has become very attractive. Recently, various polymer-based sensors have emerged with great sensing performance and excellent extensibility. It is well known that different structural designs each confer their own unique, great impacts on the properties of materials. For polymer-based pressure/strain sensors, different structural designs determine different response-sensing mechanisms, thus showing their unique advantages and characteristics. This paper mainly focuses on polymer-based pressure-sensing materials applied in different microstructures and reviews their respective advantages. At the same time, polymer-based pressure sensors with different microstructures, including with respect to their working mechanisms, key parameters, and relevant operating ranges, are discussed in detail. According to the summary of its performance and mechanisms, different morphologies of microstructures can be designed for a sensor according to its performance characteristics and application scenario requirements, and the optimal structure can be adjusted by weighing and comparing sensor performances for the future. Finally, a conclusion and future perspectives are described.

Prediction of Thermal Conductivities of Rubbers by MD Simulations-New Insights

In this article, two main approaches to the prediction of thermal conductivities by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are discussed, namely non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations (NEMD) and the application of the Green–Kubo formula, i.e., EMD. NEMD methods are more affected by size effects than EMD methods. The thermal conductivities of silicone rubbers in special were found as a function of the degree of crosslinking. Moreover, the thermal conductivities of thermoplastic polyurethane as function of the mass fraction of soft segments were obtained by those MD simulations. All results are in good agreement with data from the experimental literature. After the analysis of normalized heat flux autocorrelation functions, it has been revealed that heat in the polymers is mainly transferred by low-frequency phonons. Simulation details as well as advantages and disadvantages of the single methods are discussed in the article.