Natural helical carboxymethyl cellulose fibers-based actuator for smart controller applications.

Abstract

Water-responsive polymers have received great attention in the field of smart actuators due to their mechanical response to humidity without energy consumption. Natural polymers-based actuators are competitive because of their green, sustainable, and biocompatible characteristics. In this paper, we report a natural twisting carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) fiber-based actuator (TCFA) with remarkable performance under water and moist stimulation. The water-responsive CMC fibers were prepared using wet spinning and twisting. Owing to the helical structure, good water absorption, and swelling performance, the CMC fiber exhibits excellent rotational motion with a rotation speed of 4615 rpm and recovery speed of 1538.4 rpm under water stimulation. In addition, the actuator revolutions remained almost constant after more than 254 cycles, thus demonstrating the excellent cyclic stability of this untwisting recovery process. Moreover, the CMC fiber shows application in a smart rainy curtain, smart crane, and concentration detection for alcohol solution. We offer an easy and scalable method to obtain a CMC fiber-based actuator with low cost, sustainability as well as excellent driving performance. Our work inspires a new idea in the design of cellulose-derived actuators and their application in future intelligent systems.