Bio-inspired fluorescence color-tunable soft actuators with a self-healing and reconfigurable nature

Abstract

The adaptive behaviors of organisms in response to different environments can inspire the development of smart materials. These biomimetic color-changing actuating materials (BCCAMs) with complex shape memory (SM), self-healing, shape reconfigurable and reprocessing properties may be exactly what the flexible actuators/robots/electronic skins need. Here, we prepared an ultra-high strain (∼1600%) soft actuation material with fluorescence changes, self-healing, and SM performance under a single stimulus by a simple method. At the same time, we developed a simple strategy based on welding to achieve actuators that have a reconfiguring three-dimensional (3D) deformation and medium temperature reprocessing. The resulting 3D soft actuators can achieve effective coordination of these functions. Flexible actuators with multiple functions that can be triggered by a single switch are expected to have value in soft robots, flexible electronic skins, and so on.