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An autonomous actuator driven by fluctuations in ambient humidity

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 1084–1089 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Devices that respond to negligibly small fluctuations in environmental conditions will be of great value for the realization of more sustainable, low-power-consumption actuators and electronic systems. Herein we report an unprecedented film actuator that seemingly operates autonomously, because it responds to the adsorption and desorption of a minute amount of water (several hundred nanograms per 10 mm2) possibly induced by fluctuations in the ambient humidity. The actuation is extremely rapid (50 ms for one curl) and can be repeated >10,000 times without deterioration. On heating or light irradiation, the film loses adsorbed water and bends quickly, so that it can jump vertically up to 10 mm from a surface or hit a glass bead. The film consists of a π-stacked carbon nitride polymer1, formed by one-pot vapour-deposition polymerization of guanidinium carbonate, and is characterized by a tough, ultralightweight and highly anisotropic layered structure. An actuator partially protected against water adsorption is also shown to walk unidirectionally.

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Figure 1: Highly oriented thin films of a CNP prepared by VDP.
Figure 2: Actuating motions of a CNP film caused by changes in humidity and temperature.
Figure 3: Actuating motions of a CNP film caused by light.
Figure 4: Significance of anisotropic layered structures for actuating motions of a CNP film.
Figure 5: Unidirectional walking of a partially protected CNP film driven by fluctuations in ambient humidity.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge E. Silver for generous discussion. This work was financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research (25000005) on ‘Physically Perturbed Assembly for Tailoring High-Performance Soft Materials with Controlled Macroscopic Structural Anisotropy’ together with the ImPACT Program of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (Cabinet Office, Government of Japan). We also acknowledge Scientaomicron for the nanoindentation measurement. D.M. is grateful for a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (Grant 15K13776) and Young Scientist A (Grant 15H05487).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

    Hiroki Arazoe, Daigo Miyajima, Kouki Akaike, Fumito Araoka, Emiko Sato, Masuki Kawamoto & Takuzo Aida

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

    Hiroki Arazoe & Takuzo Aida

  3. RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan

    Takaaki Hikima

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  1. Hiroki Arazoe
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Contributions

H.A. designed and performed all experiments. D.M. and T.A. co-designed the experiments. K.A., F.A., E.S., T.H. and M.K. conducted or supported the experiments for characterization. H.A., D.M. and T.A. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Daigo Miyajima or Takuzo Aida.

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A patent application (provisional patent number PCT/JP2013/084543) has been filed by RIKEN under the title ‘g-C3N4 film production method, and use of said film’.

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Arazoe, H., Miyajima, D., Akaike, K. et al. An autonomous actuator driven by fluctuations in ambient humidity. Nature Mater 15, 1084–1089 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4693

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