Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Water-responsive (WR) materials that reversibly deform in response to humidity changes show great potential for developing muscle-like actuators for miniature and biomimetic robotics. Here, it is presented that Bacillus (B.) subtilis’ peptidoglycan (PG) exhibits WR actuation energy and power densities reaching 72.6 MJ m−3 and 9.1 MW m−3, respectively, orders of magnitude higher than those of frequently used actuators, such as piezoelectric actuators and dielectric elastomers. PG can deform as much as 27.2% within 110 ms, and its actuation pressure reaches ≈354.6 MPa. Surprisingly, PG exhibits an energy conversion efficiency of ≈66.8%, which can be attributed to its super-viscous nanoconfined water that efficiently translates the movement of water molecules to PG's mechanical deformation. Using PG, WR composites that can be integrated into a range of engineering structures are developed, including a robotic gripper and linear actuators, which illustrate the possibilities of using PG as building blocks for high-efficiency WR actuators.
Included in
Electrical and Electronics Commons, Energy Systems Commons, Engineering Mechanics Commons, Robotics Commons
Comments
This article was originally published in ADVANCED SCIENCE, available at https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202104697
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).