Poly (<i>N</i>-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm)-based hydrogel particles (microgels) have been used as the active component in layered devices that can be employed as actuators/artificial muscles. This presentation will detail the construction of such devices, how they are able to actuate in response to environmental humidity changes, and how this response can be used to report on environmental conditions. Furthermore, we show that temperature and pH responsive semi-interpenetrating network hydrogel based bilayer actuators could be fabricated by generating pNIPAm-based hydrogels in the presence of positively charged polyelectrolyte poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (pDADMAC). These devices have been shown to exhibit bidirectional bending that depends on solution temperature and pH. Finally, we will show how these bilayer devices can be used to grab surfaces while releasing a small molecule model drug.

Artificial muscles from stimuli-responsive polymer-based devices

254th National Meeting (2017)

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