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Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators

Being capable of rapid and complete structure switching, the martensitic phase transitions in molecular crystals are thought to hold a tremendous potential as thermally driven organic actuators. However, the mechanical engineering parlance in the assessment of their performance is not immediately le...

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Autores principales: Li, Liang, Commins, Patrick, Al-Handawi, Marieh B., Karothu, Durga Prasad, Halabi, Jad Mahmoud, Schramm, Stefan, Weston, James, Rezgui, Rachid, Naumov, Panče
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Royal Society of Chemistry 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6837004/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31768232
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sc02444a
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author Li, Liang
Commins, Patrick
Al-Handawi, Marieh B.
Karothu, Durga Prasad
Halabi, Jad Mahmoud
Schramm, Stefan
Weston, James
Rezgui, Rachid
Naumov, Panče
author_facet Li, Liang
Commins, Patrick
Al-Handawi, Marieh B.
Karothu, Durga Prasad
Halabi, Jad Mahmoud
Schramm, Stefan
Weston, James
Rezgui, Rachid
Naumov, Panče
author_sort Li, Liang
collection PubMed
description Being capable of rapid and complete structure switching, the martensitic phase transitions in molecular crystals are thought to hold a tremendous potential as thermally driven organic actuators. However, the mechanical engineering parlance in the assessment of their performance is not immediately legible to the chemistry research community that starts to explore these materials, and the unavailability of performance indices has precluded molecular crystals from being considered in the device design process. Here, we demonstrate that an organic martensite, hexamethylbenzene, can be used to perform work that is comparable to that of most actuator classes. Millimeter-size single crystals of this material undergo a transition between two forms by uniaxial expansion at a rate of 6.36(2) mm s(–1), exerting force in the range 10–100 mN. The force-to-weight ratio of the crystals is on the order of 10(4) and is superior to that of some living creatures. An actuator performance chart reveals that the performance of this material is close to that of nanomuscles, electrostatic actuators and voice coils, with a strain higher than that of electro/magnetostrictive actuators and ceramic piezoelectrics and stress higher than that of the electroactive polymers, MEMS devices, nanomuscles, voice coils, and some solenoids. Moreover, the crystals of this material are mechanically compliant and can be reversibly bent and shaped to fit the desired application. Altogether, the results point to the untapped potential of molecular crystals as rapid and efficient soft, organic actuators.
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spelling pubmed-68370042019-11-25 Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators Li, Liang Commins, Patrick Al-Handawi, Marieh B. Karothu, Durga Prasad Halabi, Jad Mahmoud Schramm, Stefan Weston, James Rezgui, Rachid Naumov, Panče Chem Sci Chemistry Being capable of rapid and complete structure switching, the martensitic phase transitions in molecular crystals are thought to hold a tremendous potential as thermally driven organic actuators. However, the mechanical engineering parlance in the assessment of their performance is not immediately legible to the chemistry research community that starts to explore these materials, and the unavailability of performance indices has precluded molecular crystals from being considered in the device design process. Here, we demonstrate that an organic martensite, hexamethylbenzene, can be used to perform work that is comparable to that of most actuator classes. Millimeter-size single crystals of this material undergo a transition between two forms by uniaxial expansion at a rate of 6.36(2) mm s(–1), exerting force in the range 10–100 mN. The force-to-weight ratio of the crystals is on the order of 10(4) and is superior to that of some living creatures. An actuator performance chart reveals that the performance of this material is close to that of nanomuscles, electrostatic actuators and voice coils, with a strain higher than that of electro/magnetostrictive actuators and ceramic piezoelectrics and stress higher than that of the electroactive polymers, MEMS devices, nanomuscles, voice coils, and some solenoids. Moreover, the crystals of this material are mechanically compliant and can be reversibly bent and shaped to fit the desired application. Altogether, the results point to the untapped potential of molecular crystals as rapid and efficient soft, organic actuators. Royal Society of Chemistry 2019-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC6837004/ /pubmed/31768232 http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sc02444a Text en This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This article is freely available. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY-NC 3.0)
spellingShingle Chemistry
Li, Liang
Commins, Patrick
Al-Handawi, Marieh B.
Karothu, Durga Prasad
Halabi, Jad Mahmoud
Schramm, Stefan
Weston, James
Rezgui, Rachid
Naumov, Panče
Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
title Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
title_full Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
title_fullStr Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
title_full_unstemmed Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
title_short Martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
title_sort martensitic organic crystals as soft actuators
topic Chemistry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6837004/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31768232
http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9sc02444a
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