Large, Fast, and Bidirectional Bending of Slide‐Ring Polymer Materials

• Main Authors: Shimpei Kakizaki, Jun Shintake, Yasunori Iwatake, Kazumasa Baba, Hiromitsu Takeuchi, Akio Yamamoto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020-04-01
• Series: Advanced Intelligent Systems
• Subjects: electroactive polymers; slide ring materials; soft actuators; soft grippers; soft robotics
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.201900155

The bending of slide‐ring materials (SRMs), polymer materials having ring‐shaped cross‐linking points providing deterioration tolerance and low hysteresis, is described. An SRM sheet exhibits a voltage‐controllable, extremely large, fast, and bidirectional bending deformation with shape memory functionality. A 50‐μm‐thick SRM sheet actuator exhibits an electrostatic actuation in two opposite directions and bending angle larger than 180° achieved within 0.4 s due to its shape memory effect. The memory effect remains for more than 250 min. As a potential application utilizing the bending of the SRM, a soft gripper is fabricated, which handles two objects placed opposite each other. This functionality is rarely achieved by a soft gripper composed of a single active material, which shows the characteristics of the SRM promising for the development of soft matter systems with novel functionalities and high performances.