Structurally isolated photoactuation of graphene-mixed temperature-responsive hydrogels in soft-rigid series structure

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents fabrication and actuation methods for a soft microrobot with a hybrid structure composed of soft microactuators and a rigid supporting body. This hybrid structure enables actuation of the microrobot with independent driving of multiple actuators to provide complex movement like that of living microorganisms. We use the temperature-responsive hydrogel poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) as a soft microactuator. PNIPAAm swells with water at low temperature but shrinks at high temperature. This volume change thus allows PNIPAAm to be used as an actuator by controlling its temperature. We successfully fabricated the microrobot with its soft-rigid hybrid structure composed of PNIPAAm and rigid photoresist using a multilayered microfabrication process. In addition, we used a sacrificial layer process to release the fabricated microrobot from the substrate to allow it to move freely. To actuate the microrobot, we mixed PNIPAAm with graphene, which has a high photothermal conversion efficiency. The temperature of the soft actuator when mixed with graphene can be increased by irradiating it with light. Therefore, actuation of the microrobot is achieved by sequentially irradiating the microactuators with focused light. We present the fabrication, release and partial actuation of the microrobot to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed microrobot with the soft-rigid hybrid structure in this paper.