| 초록 |
Hydrogel soft actuator, which can reversibly change their shape in response to external stimuli, such as electricity, light, chemical, heat, pH or humidity has attracted growing interests as a promising materials in soft robotics, drug delivery, and artificial muscles. In particular, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) with a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) at approximately 32 ℃, which is close to human body temperature has been intensively studied in soft actuator applications for its sensitivity to minimal local temperature. In this study, a PNIPAAm-based hydrogel with thermo-responsive bending activity was prepared using UV irradiation. The equilibrium water content (EWC), morphologies, swelling/deswelling kinetics and mechanical properties were investigated. In addition, photothermally triggered bending motion was determined under near-infrared irradiation. |
