Intelligent bending photothermal converter based on light-driven PDMS bimorph soft actuator

The angle of the light receiving panel in traditional optical equipment is fixed. When the light does not shine vertically onto the panel, there will be a problem of energy density loss due to oblique incidence. In this article, we prepared an intelligent responsive light-driven bimorph soft actuator using the thermal expansion properties of polydimethylsiloxane. Intelligent bending photothermal converter can be achieved by placing a photothermal converter at the top of the device. The device adopts a hollow cylindrical structure to achieve omni-directional response to light, and has the advantages of fast response speed, high tracking accuracy, and strong repeatability. When light is irradiated from a 40 ° direction, the device can be bent in the direction of illumination, aligning the top photothermal converter with the direction of illumination, proving that the light-driven soft actuator we have prepared can effectively recover energy density loss of oblique incidence.