An Electrospinning Anisotropic Hydrogel with Remotely-Controlled Photo-Responsive Deformation and Long-Range Navigation for Synergist Actuation

As a soft/wet intelligent material, hydrogel actuators with multiple stimuli-responsiveness have been widely developed. However, it is still greatly difficult for them to integrate bi/multiple responsiveness together for biomimetic synergistic actuation. Here, we have explored a high-strength anisotropic bi-layer hydrogel actuator with P(NIPAM-ABP) layer and Fe3O4/PAN layer via electrospinning technique, which can provide programmable bi-functional synergistic movement. The Fe3O4/PAN layer can provide magnetic responsive navigation for longrange transportation on account of the magnetism of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Furthermore, the ultrahigh photothermal conversion efficiency of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the Fe3O4/PAN layer, can endow the P(NIPAM-ABP) layer with fast remotely-controlled photothermal-responsive deformation. Most importantly, this hydro gel actuator can achieve complex higher-level programmable movements than before based on the synergy of remotely-controlled deformation and the long-range transportation, which can be utilized to design various novel bio-mimetic soft-robots. Last but not least, the introduction of the electrospinning, not only can achieve high strength (4.59 MPa of tensile strength) of this bi-layer hydrogel, but also can provide both ultrafast (178?degrees/s) and programmable complex photothermal-responsiveness, owing to the ultrahigh specific surface area (ultra-thin and porous structure) and excellent orientation of the thermal-responsive P(NIPAM-ABP) nanofibers respectively. This work will provide a general method via electrospinning for anisotropic hydrogel actuator with bi/ multiple-functional synergy and will provide a new strategy for smart actuators and other bio-mimetic intelligent materials/systems.