Abstract
Electroactive soft actuators and bioinspired artificial muscles have received burgeoning interest as essential components in future electronic devices such as soft haptic‐feedback systems, human‐friendly wearable electronics, and active biomedical devices. However, important challenging issues including fast response time, ultralow input power, robust operation in harsh environments, high‐resolution controllability, and cost‐effectiveness remain to be resolved for more practical applications. Here, an electroionic antagonistic artificial muscle is reported based on hierarchically porous nitrogen‐doped carbon (HPNC) electrodes derived from a microporous poly(triazine‐triptycene) organic framework (PtztpOF). The HPNC, which exhibits hierarchically micro‐ and mesoporous structures, high specific capacitance of 330 F g−1 in aqueous solution, large specific surface area of 830.46 m2 g−1, and graphitic nitrogen doping, offers high electrical conductivity of 0.073 MS m−1 and outstanding volumetric capacitance of 10.4 MF m−3. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that a novel electroionic antagonistic muscle based on HPNC electrodes successfully displays extremely reliable and large bending deformations and long‐term durability under ultralow input voltages. Therefore, microporous polymer or covalent organic frameworks can be applied to provide significant improvements in electroactive artificial muscles, which can play key roles as technological advances toward bioinspired actuating devices required for next‐generation soft and wearable electronics.
Highlights
Electroactive soft actuators and bioinspired artificial muscles have received attention for potential applications in soft burgeoning interest as essential components in future electronic devices robotics, bioinspired operations, mansuch as soft haptic-feedback systems, human-friendly wearable electronics, and active biomedical devices
The N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm of poly(triazinetriptycene) organic framework (PtztpOF) exhibits type-I features associated with sharp uptake in the low-pressure region and the corresponding pore size distribution (PSD) plot shows a maximum value at around 1.30 nm, suggesting that micropores are dominant in PtztpOF (Figure S1a,b, Supporting Information)
It is noteworthy that highly interconnected hierarchically porous nitrogen-doped carbon (HPNC) structures in the PEDOT:PSS facilitate rapid electron transfer, and high electrical conductivity, electrochemical activity and mechanical property
Summary
The relative content of graphitic N, evaluated from the N 1s deconvoluted spectra, is more abundant in HPNC-900 (70%) than in HPNC-700 (38%) (Figure S2d, Supporting Information), indicating that nitrogen atoms mainly reside in the graphitic layers instead of at the periphery, which can significantly increase the electrical conductivity as well as the electrochemical response of HPNC-900 compared to those characteristics of HPNC-700.[34] HPNC-900 can be a highly desirable electrode material for high-performance ionic actuators. The high bending actuation performance of the HPNC-900/PEDOT:PSS-based actuator under ultralow input voltages is mainly attributed to the interconnected hierarchically porous carbon structures, higher graphitic N content and superior mechanical and electrochemical properties of the HPNC-900/PEDOT:PSS electrode, resulting in efficient electron and ion pathways. When an electric signal was applied, such a nature-inspired actuating device showed a closed bending shape, causing it to enfold an object in a manner similar to that of the flower Dionaea muscipula
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call