Electro-Responsive 4D-Printable Polymer Nanocomposites for Artificial Muscles (PolyARM)

用于人造肌肉的电响应 4D 可打印聚合物纳米复合材料 (PolyARM)

• 批准号: EP/X026337/1
• 负责人: Oana Mihaela Istrate
• 金额: $ 59.37万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX026337%2F1
• 关键词: Electro; Responsive; 4D; Printable; Polymer

Artificial muscles are an emerging type of electro-responsive material that can expand or contract when being subjected to external stimuli, and have huge potential in the medical industry, in, e.g., smart prosthetics, and in manufacturing lightweight sensitive robotics and materials for similar applications. Natural muscle is an incredible material system capable of handling immense strain, utilising high energy densities and a broad range of frequencies currently unmatched by man-made materials. This proposal aims to address this issue by developing new 4D-printable nanocomposite materials that can facilitate an electromechanical response. These materials will be fabricated into active / passive layered polymer-based materials, resulting in new artificial muscles with improved mechanical strength and efficient electrical response versus the current state-of-the-art. Graphene and carbon nanotubes are ideal candidates for nanofillers that can produce the required dielectric properties; building on findings from preliminary work, their loading, dispersion and interfacial interaction with the polymer matrix will be further investigated in this work. The potential of these 4D-printable polymer nanocomposite materials will be demonstrated by 3D-printing artificial muscles and characterising their structure and properties using mechanical and electrochemical testing, complemented by in situ synchrotron techniques.

人造肌肉是一种新兴的电响应材料，在受到外部刺激时可以膨胀或收缩，在医疗行业（例如智能假肢）以及制造用于类似应用的轻型敏感机器人和材料方面具有巨大潜力。天然肌肉是一种令人难以置信的材料系统，能够利用目前人造材料无法比拟的高能量密度和广泛的频率来处理巨大的应变。该提案旨在通过开发可促进机电响应的新型 4D 打印纳米复合材料来解决这个问题。这些材料将被制造成主动/被动层状聚合物材料，从而产生与当前最先进的技术相比具有更高机械强度和高效电响应的新型人造肌肉。石墨烯和碳纳米管是纳米填料的理想候选者，可以产生所需的介电性能；基于前期工作的结果，本工作将进一步研究它们的负载、分散以及与聚合物基质的界面相互作用。这些可 4D 打印的聚合物纳米复合材料的潜力将通过 3D 打印人造肌肉并使用机械和电化学测试表征其结构和性能来证明，并辅以原位同步加速器技术。