Abstract
In recent decades, micro and nanoscale technologies have become cutting-edge frontiers in material science and device developments. This worldwide trend has induced further improvements in actuator production with enhanced performance. A main role has been played by nanostructured carbon-based materials, i.e., carbon nanotubes and graphene, due to their intrinsic properties and easy functionalization. Moreover, the nanoscale decoration of these materials has led to the design of doped and decorated carbon-based devices effectively used as actuators incorporating metals and metal-based structures. This review provides an overview and discussion of the overall process for producing AC actuators using nanostructured, doped, and decorated carbon materials. It highlights the differences and common aspects that make carbon materials one of the most promising resources in the field of actuators.
Highlights
In the past twenty years, the research of new high-performance materials has gained a great deal of attention for sensor and actuator applications [1], mainly due to the development of industrial automation processes [2]
multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs) were obtained with ruthenium oxides and the resulting inorganic-containing carbon material was used as an actuator, doubling the performances of a unfunctionalized SWCNTs based device considering the strain and maximum generated stress [89]
Graphene actuation was studied by Saane and Onck [93] using a Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation based on an adaptive intermolecular reactive empirical bond order potential method
Summary
In the past twenty years, the research of new high-performance materials has gained a great deal of attention for sensor and actuator applications [1], mainly due to the development of industrial automation processes [2]. The field of electronic engineering has required better performance for a large number of applications [3,4] Since their discovery, allotropic carbon forms [5,6] emerged as the best candidates for the production of input–output devices [7] and electric transducers [8]. The high conductivity of aromatic conjugate systems of nanostructured carbon makes them excellent for the production of electrodes and electrochemistry applications [14,15,16] Despite these superior properties, the high cost and difficult dispersion in other media have reduced their use for large-scale applications. This review discusses the main recent achievements in the use of nanostructured carbon-based materials with a particular focus on the materials and their applications, and is organized as follows: (i) CNTs, (ii) graphene and graphene oxides, and (iii) fullerenes
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