Ecofriendly high-performance ionic soft actuators based on graphene-mediated cellulose acetate

Abstract

Ionic-type artificial muscles with eco-friendly, biodegradable, and biocompatible functionalities have attracted attention for a wide range of potential applications in wearable electronics, soft haptic-feedback systems, and active biomedical devices. Here, we report on the development of an ecofriendly high-performance ionic soft actuator based on biofriendly cellulose acetate (CA), graphene nanopowders (GN), ionic liquid (IL) as a plasticizer, and biofriendly-flexible-nonmetallic conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiopene)-polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT: PSS) as an electrode, thereby realizing a novel ecofriendly CA-IL-GN actuator with a large bending mechanical deformation and a fast response time. The proposed CA-IL-GN (0.2 wt%) nanocomposite membrane exhibited dramatic increments in specific capacitance (2.92 times) and Young’s modulus (2.38 times), thus leading to a 2.9 times larger bending deformation and a 4.8 times faster response than those of pure CA-IL actuator. Therefore, the developed ecofriendly high-performance CA-IL-GN actuator can be considered to be a promising candidate for human-friendly electronics, including artificial muscles, flexible haptic devices, soft wearable devices, and bio-medical devices, due to its cost-effectiveness, large bending mechanical actuation, fast response, and bio-friendly functionalities.