Electroactive artificial muscles with deformability have attracted widespread interest in the field of soft robotics. However, the design of artificial muscles with low-driven voltage and operational durability remains challenging. Herein, novel biomass porous carbon (BPC) electrodes are proposed. The nanoporous BPC enables the electrode to provide exposed active surfaces for charge transfer and unimpeded channels for ion migration, thus decreasing the driving voltage, enhancing time durability, and maintaining the actuation performances simultaneously. The proposed actuator exhibits a high displacement of 13.6 mm (bending strain of 0.54%) under 0.5 V and long-term durability of 99.3% retention after 550,000 cycles (∼13 days) without breaks. Further, the actuators are integrated to perform soft touch on a smartphone and demonstrated as bioinspired robots, including a bionic butterfly and a crawling robot (moving speed = 0.08 BL s). This strategy provides new insight into the design and fabrication of high-performance electroactive soft actuators with great application potential.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c01129 | DOI Listing |
Int J Mol Sci
January 2025
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
It is challenging to handle heavy-metal-rich plants that grow in contaminated soil. The role of heavy metals in biomass on the physicochemical structure and electrochemical properties of their derived carbon has not been considered in previous research. In this study, Cu-ion hybrid nanoporous carbon (CHNC) is prepared from Cu content-contaminated biomass through subcritical hydrocharization (HTC) coupling pyrolytic activation processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, 199 Ren-Ai Road, Suzhou 215123, China. Electronic address:
The continuous progression of industrialisation and the burgeoning global population have precipitated the non-renewable energy crisis and exacerbated environmental problems, thereby stimulating a huge demand for production of environmentally friendly materials. Typically, biomass-based aerogels (BAs) derived from cellulose, chitosan (CS), lignin, and alginate have been gradually captivating the attention of researchers owing to their high specific surface area, substantial porosity, low density, porous architecture, and biodegradability. In this review, we demonstrate the sustainability of BAs by contrasting the overall advantages or disadvantages of BAs with those of synthetic alternatives in terms of cost, insulation performance, and planetary boundaries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbohydr Polym
March 2025
State Key Laboratory of Featured Metal Materials and Life-cycle Safety for Composite Structures, School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China. Electronic address:
High-performance green functional materials have garnered significant interest for electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding applications, but creating customized, low-density, high-strength and high-efficiency biomass-based shielding materials remains challenging. In this study, lightweight Ca doped sodium alginate (SA) porous scaffolds with a carbon nanotube (CNT)/graphene (Gr) hybrid conductive network were fabricated via direct ink writing (DIW) 3D printing. The SA/CNT/Gr inks with unique rheological properties were formulated and architectures with arbitrarily customized structures could be freely constructed based on the printable inks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbohydr Polym
March 2025
Hubei Key Laboratory of Industry Microbiology, National "111" Center for Cellular Regulation and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China; Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. Electronic address:
Biomass foam with porous structure has broad application prospects in thermal energy management. However, traditional foams can only passively insulate heat, unable to effectively store thermal energy and prolong the insulation time. In this work, microcapsules rich in paraffin were prepared using the Pickering emulsion template method with phosphorylated cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) as an emulsifier.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
Institute of Chemistry, Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), 40170-280 Salvador, BA, Brazil. Electronic address:
Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), a sustainable material derived from biomass, stands out as an environmentally friendly alternative for developing chemical sensors owing to its advantageous properties, including high porosity, surface area, and available surface functional groups. Herein, we propose a simple and low-cost strategy for developing cellulose-based strips for the colorimetric detection of total iron in water. The strips were prepared by functionalizing MFC casting membranes with 1-(2-Thiazolylazo)-2-naphthol (TAN), which was then characterized by structural and morphological techniques.
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