Cargando…

Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light

The rise of stimuli‐responsive polymers has brought about a wealth of materials for small‐scale, wirelessly controlled soft‐bodied robots. Thinking beyond conventional robotic mobilities already demonstrated in synthetic systems, such as walking, swimming and jumping, flying in air by dispersal, gli...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yang, Jianfeng, Zhang, Hang, Berdin, Alex, Hu, Wenqi, Zeng, Hao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9982548/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36574479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202206752
_version_ 1784900351568117760
author Yang, Jianfeng
Zhang, Hang
Berdin, Alex
Hu, Wenqi
Zeng, Hao
author_facet Yang, Jianfeng
Zhang, Hang
Berdin, Alex
Hu, Wenqi
Zeng, Hao
author_sort Yang, Jianfeng
collection PubMed
description The rise of stimuli‐responsive polymers has brought about a wealth of materials for small‐scale, wirelessly controlled soft‐bodied robots. Thinking beyond conventional robotic mobilities already demonstrated in synthetic systems, such as walking, swimming and jumping, flying in air by dispersal, gliding, or even hovering is a frontier yet to be explored by responsive materials. The demanding requirements for actuator's performance, lightweight, and effective aerodynamic design underlie the grand challenges. Here, a soft matter‐based porous structure capable of wind‐assisted dispersal and lift‐off/landing action under the control of a light beam is reported. The design is inspired by the seed of dandelion, resembling several biomimetic features, i.e., high porosity, lightweight, and separated vortex ring generation under a steady wind flow. Superior to its natural counterparts, this artificial seed is equipped with a soft actuator made of light‐responsive liquid crystalline elastomer, which induces reversible opening/closing actions of the bristles upon visible light excitation. This shape‐morphing enables manual tuning of terminal velocity, drag coefficient, and wind threshold for dispersal. Optically controlled wind‐assisted lift‐off and landing actions, and a light‐induced local accumulation in descending structures are demonstrated. The results offer novel approaches for wirelessly controlled, miniatured devices that can passively navigate over a large aerial space.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9982548
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99825482023-03-04 Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light Yang, Jianfeng Zhang, Hang Berdin, Alex Hu, Wenqi Zeng, Hao Adv Sci (Weinh) Research Articles The rise of stimuli‐responsive polymers has brought about a wealth of materials for small‐scale, wirelessly controlled soft‐bodied robots. Thinking beyond conventional robotic mobilities already demonstrated in synthetic systems, such as walking, swimming and jumping, flying in air by dispersal, gliding, or even hovering is a frontier yet to be explored by responsive materials. The demanding requirements for actuator's performance, lightweight, and effective aerodynamic design underlie the grand challenges. Here, a soft matter‐based porous structure capable of wind‐assisted dispersal and lift‐off/landing action under the control of a light beam is reported. The design is inspired by the seed of dandelion, resembling several biomimetic features, i.e., high porosity, lightweight, and separated vortex ring generation under a steady wind flow. Superior to its natural counterparts, this artificial seed is equipped with a soft actuator made of light‐responsive liquid crystalline elastomer, which induces reversible opening/closing actions of the bristles upon visible light excitation. This shape‐morphing enables manual tuning of terminal velocity, drag coefficient, and wind threshold for dispersal. Optically controlled wind‐assisted lift‐off and landing actions, and a light‐induced local accumulation in descending structures are demonstrated. The results offer novel approaches for wirelessly controlled, miniatured devices that can passively navigate over a large aerial space. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-12-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9982548/ /pubmed/36574479 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202206752 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Yang, Jianfeng
Zhang, Hang
Berdin, Alex
Hu, Wenqi
Zeng, Hao
Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light
title Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light
title_full Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light
title_fullStr Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light
title_full_unstemmed Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light
title_short Dandelion‐Inspired, Wind‐Dispersed Polymer‐Assembly Controlled by Light
title_sort dandelion‐inspired, wind‐dispersed polymer‐assembly controlled by light
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9982548/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36574479
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202206752
work_keys_str_mv AT yangjianfeng dandelioninspiredwinddispersedpolymerassemblycontrolledbylight
AT zhanghang dandelioninspiredwinddispersedpolymerassemblycontrolledbylight
AT berdinalex dandelioninspiredwinddispersedpolymerassemblycontrolledbylight
AT huwenqi dandelioninspiredwinddispersedpolymerassemblycontrolledbylight
AT zenghao dandelioninspiredwinddispersedpolymerassemblycontrolledbylight