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Surface-chemistry-driven actuation in nanoporous gold

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 47–51 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Although actuation in biological systems is exclusively powered by chemical energy, this concept has not been realized in man-made actuator technologies, as these rely on generating heat or electricity first1. Here, we demonstrate that surface-chemistry-driven actuation can be realized in high-surface-area materials such as nanoporous gold. For example, we achieve reversible strain amplitudes of the order of a few tenths of a per cent by alternating exposure of nanoporous Au to ozone and carbon monoxide. The effect can be explained by adsorbate-induced changes of the surface stress2, and can be used to convert chemical energy directly into a mechanical response, thus opening the door to surface-chemistry-driven actuator and sensor technologies.

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Figure 1: Illustration of surface-chemistry-driven actuation in nanoporous gold.
Figure 2: Performance of a surface-chemistry-driven nanoporous Au actuator.
Figure 3: Surface-stress-induced relaxation of Au nanostructures studied by fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this work was carried out under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. The authors want to express special thanks to F. F. Abraham (LLNL) and M. Duchaineau (LLNL) for generating the nanoporous Au samples for the molecular dynamics simulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanoscale Synthesis and Characterization Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA

    J. Biener, A. Wittstock, L. A. Zepeda-Ruiz, M. M. Biener & A. V. Hamza

  2. Institut für Angewandte und Physikalische Chemie, Universität Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany

    A. Wittstock, V. Zielasek & M. Bäumer

  3. Institut für Nanotechnologie, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

    D. Kramer, R. N. Viswanath & J. Weissmüller

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  1. J. Biener
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Correspondence to J. Biener.

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Biener, J., Wittstock, A., Zepeda-Ruiz, L. et al. Surface-chemistry-driven actuation in nanoporous gold. Nature Mater 8, 47–51 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2335

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