Near-infrared photo-responsive Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene/LCN film for soft actuators

ABSTRACTSoft actuators have attracted a lot of attention because of their impressive performance and wide range of applications. Liquid crystalline networks (LCNs) are a combination of liquid crystals and polymers, and they are considered to be the most promising materials for creating soft actuators. MXene has a high photothermal conversion efficiency, and it can be a heat-source under near-infrared light. In this paper, we fabricated a MXene/LCN composite film by coating a solution of Ti3C2Tx MXene onto an LCN film with orientation direction and then followed by drying. We observed different types of deformations when we cut the composite film in different directions. We also measured the influence of the near-infrared light intensity on the bending angle, response time, and recovery time of the composite films with different deformations. Finally, we used this composite film to fabricate various biomimetic devices such as biomimetic flowers, artificial irises, mechanical fixtures, and crawling robots. These results demonstrate the great potential of this composite film in soft actuator applications.KEYWORDS: Liquid crystalline networkMXenesoft actuatorstimulus-responsephotothermal effect Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Supplemental dataSupplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02678292.2023.2264252.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2018YFB0703701]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [61475042].