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Hierarchically arranged helical fibre actuators driven by solvents and vapours

Nature Nanotechnology volume 10, pages 1077–1083 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Mechanical responsiveness in many plants is produced by helical organizations of cellulose microfibrils. However, simple mimicry of these naturally occurring helical structures does not produce artificial materials with the desired tunable actuations. Here, we show that actuating fibres that respond to solvent and vapour stimuli can be created through the hierarchical and helical assembly of aligned carbon nanotubes. Primary fibres consisting of helical assemblies of multiwalled carbon nanotubes are twisted together to form the helical actuating fibres. The nanoscale gaps between the nanotubes and micrometre-scale gaps among the primary fibres contribute to the rapid response and large actuation stroke of the actuating fibres. The compact coils allow the actuating fibre to rotate reversibly. We show that these fibres, which are lightweight, flexible and strong, are suitable for a variety of applications such as energy-harvesting generators, deformable sensing springs and smart textiles.

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Figure 1: Helically assembled MWCNT fibres with multiscale gap structures.
Figure 2: Actuation performances of helical fibres.
Figure 3: Helically arranged gaps at multiple scales formed in the HHF.
Figure 4: Contractive deformations of smart springs fabricated from HHFs in response to vapour.
Figure 5: Rapid actuation of smart textile woven from HHFs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank R.H. Baughman and S. Fang for their suggestions. This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (2011CB932503), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21225417), Science And Technology Commission Of Shanghai Municipality (12nm0503200, 15XD1500400), the Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation, the Program for Special Appointments of Professors at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning and the Program for Outstanding Young Scholars from the Organization Department of the Zhong Gong Central Committee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Macromolecular Science, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center of Polymers and Polymer Composite Materials, and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Peining Chen, Yifan Xu, Sisi He, Xuemei Sun, Shaowu Pan, Jue Deng, Daoyong Chen & Huisheng Peng

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  1. Peining Chen
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Contributions

H.P. conceived and designed the research project. P.C., Y.X., S.H., S.P. and J.D. performed the experiments. P.C., X.S., D.C. and H.P. analysed the data. P.C. and H.P. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Huisheng Peng.

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Chen, P., Xu, Y., He, S. et al. Hierarchically arranged helical fibre actuators driven by solvents and vapours. Nature Nanotech 10, 1077–1083 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.198

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