Volume 19, Issue 40 2303166
Research Article

Dual-Stimuli Cooperative Responsive Hydrogel Microactuators Via Two-Photon Lithography

Jian-Yu Wang

Jian-Yu Wang

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yanqihu Campus, Beijing, 101407 P. R. China

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Feng Jin

Corresponding Author

Feng Jin

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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Xian-Zi Dong

Xian-Zi Dong

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

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Jie Liu

Jie Liu

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

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Ming-Xia Zhou

Ming-Xia Zhou

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yanqihu Campus, Beijing, 101407 P. R. China

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Teng Li

Teng Li

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yanqihu Campus, Beijing, 101407 P. R. China

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Mei-Ling Zheng

Corresponding Author

Mei-Ling Zheng

Laboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 29, Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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First published: 01 June 2023
Citations: 14

Abstract

With the development of bionics as well as materials science, intelligent soft actuators have shown promising applications in many fields such as soft robotics, sensing, and remote manipulation. Microfabrication technologies have enabled the reduction of the size of responsive soft actuators to the micron level. However, it is still challenging to construct microscale actuators capable of responding to different external stimuli in complex and diverse conditions. Here, this work demonstrates a dual-stimuli cooperative responsive hydrogel microactuator by asymmetric fabrication via femtosecond laser direct writing. The dual response of the hydrogel microstructure is achieved by employing responsive hydrogel with functional monomer 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate. Raman spectra of the hydrogel microstructures suggest that the pH and temperature response of the hydrogel is generated by the changes in tertiary amine groups and hydrogen bonds, respectively. The asymmetric hydrogel microstructures show opposite bending direction when being heated to high temperature or exposed to acid solution, and can independently accomplish the grasp of polystyrene microspheres. Moreover, this work depicts the cooperative response of the hydrogel microactuator to pH and temperature at the same time. The dual-stimuli cooperative responsive hydrogel microactuators will provide a strategy for designing and fabricating controllable microscale actuators with promising applications in microrobotics and microfluidics.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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