Electric soft actuators with large deformation capacity have powerful functions and a wide range of applications. However, designing soft actuators that can withstand high strains, provide large driving displacements, and have stable reversibility are still the main challenges for their practical applications.

Recently, Ting Zhang of the Suzhou Institute of Nanotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences reported for the first time an electrochemical actuator based on a two-dimensional (2D) conductive metal organic framework (MOF), which is composed of vertically-oriented and layered Ni-CAT NWAs/CNF electrodes. A one-step hydrothermal in-situ growth method is adopted.

The main points of the article
1) Thanks to the inherently ordered porous structure and the efficient transmission path for fast ion and electron transmission, the actuation performance of the prepared soft actuator has been significantly improved. In particular, the driver exhibits a fast response (<19 s) under a 3 V DC input, a large drive displacement (12.1 mm), and a high strain of 0.36% under a square wave AC voltage of ±3 V.

2) The actuator achieves a broadband frequency response (0.1-20 Hz) and long-term cyclability in the air (10,000 cycles), while the performance degradation is negligible.

This work provides new opportunities for the development of biologically inspired artificial actuators and overcomes the current deficiencies of soft robots and bionic electrode materials.


references
Yi-Xiang Shi, et al, Soft Electrochemical Actuators with a Two-Dimensional Conductive Metal−Organic Framework Nanowire Array, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c00666
https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c00666