Latest Advances in Development of Smart Phase Change Material for Soft Actuators
用于柔性执行器的智能相变材料的最新研究进展
Fei Long, Yuchuan Cheng*, Yong Ren*, Jun Wang, Zhixiang Li, Aihua Sun, Gaojie Xu
龙菲，程昱川*，任勇*，王军，李志祥，孙爱华，许高杰
链接：Advanced Engineering Materials, 2022, 24, 2100863
Abstract
受到大自然的启发，柔性致动器因其对人类操作者的高度灵活性和安全性方面的好处而吸引了越来越多的关注，但材料选择和制造过程仍然具有挑战性。与传统的固态驱动器相比，智能相变材料 (PCM) 更适合软驱动应用，因为它能够响应各种刺激物（如热、光、pH、或电场。本文对柔性致动器上的智能 PCM 应用进行了全面分析，包括金属合金及其聚合物对应物、形状记忆材料和液晶聚合物。此类材料通常具有变形度大、运动复杂度高、通用性强等特点，具有柔顺性，非常适合软机电和机器人等广泛应用中的软执行器。由于刚度变量在执行器转换中起着重要作用，因此本文重点介绍固-液和液-气相变转换的智能材料。通过本文有助于更好地了解智能 PCM 的相变、性能和局限性，并深入了解其在柔性执行器方面的潜在应用。
Latest Advances in Development of Smart Phase Change Material for Soft Actuators Inspired from the nature, soft actuators have been attracting the incremental attention on account of the benefits in terms of high flexibility and safety for human operators, but material selection and manufacturing process remain challenging. Compared with the conventional actuators in solid state, smart phase change materials (PCMs) are superior for the soft actuation applications because of the capability to change their shapes or properties in response to a wide range of stimulants, such as heat, light, pH, or electrical field. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of smart PCM applications on soft actuators, including metal alloys and their polymer counterparts, shape memory materials and liquid crystalline polymers. Such materials generally exhibit large deformation degrees, high complexity in movement and diverse versatility, which are compliant and well suited for soft actuators in the vast applications of soft mechatronics and robots. Since stiffness variable plays a significant role on actuator transformation, this review focuses on smart materials with an emphasis on the different forms of phase transformation among solid, liquid, and gas phase. This review enables a better understanding of phase transformation, performances, and limitations of smart PCMs, and provides insights into the potential applications for soft actuators.
