Humidity-Compensated Multi-Stimuli Soft Actuator with Asymmetric Bilayer Design.

Authors

Hanpeng Gao, Tianci Zhang, Xi Wang, Zong Meng, Zhiwu Han, Yan Liu

Published in

Nano letters. Jul 17, 2026. Epub Jul 17, 2026.

Abstract

Biological systems execute complex motions by concurrently processing light, moisture, and magnetic stimuli, inspiring the development of multistimulus actuators. However, traditional rigid actuators face inherent limitations in size, structural complexity, and application versatility, restricting their use in extreme or multifunctional scenarios. Herein, we develop a multistimulus-coupled soft actuator by vacuum-filtering graphene oxide (GO) and spraying a composite of graphene, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and Fe₃O₄. The asymmetric bilayer design enables programmable deformation under light, humidity, and magnetic fields, replicating biomimetic motions such as jellyfish swimming, pine-cone closing, and earthworm crawling through tunable stimulus parameters. Notably, a humidity-induced residual deformation compensation mechanism enables near-complete recovery (98.5%) from photothermal bending, overcoming a key limitation in existing multistimulus actuators. This work establishes a humidity-compensated, multistimulus paradigm that bridges nanophotonics, elastomer mechanics, and hydration dynamics for intelligent soft robots.

PMID:
42467407
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Jul 2026.

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