Electrospun cellulose acetate nanofibrous composites for multi-responsive shape memory actuators and self-powered pressure sensors

Soft actuators and sensors have attracted extensive scientific interest attributed to their great potential applications in various fields, but the integration of actuating and sensing functions in one material is still a big challenge. Here, we developed an electrospun cellulose acetate (CA)/carbon nanotube nanofiborous composite with both functional applications as multi-responsive shape memory actuators and triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based sensors. Attributed to excellent thermo- and light-induced shape memory performance, the CA nanofiborous composites showed high heavy-lift capability as light driven actuators, able to lift burdens 1050 times heavier than their own weight. The CA nanofiborous membranes based TENG exhibited high output performance with open-circuit voltage, short-circuit density, and instantaneous power density about 103.2 V, 7.93 mA m-2 and 0.74 W m-2, respectively. The fabricated TENG based pressure sensor exhibited a high sensitivity of 3.03 V kPa-1 below 6.8 kPa and 0.11 V kPa-1 in the pressure range from 6.8 to 65 kPa, which can be effectively used to monitor human motion state and measure wind velocity. It is expected that the electrospun composites with actuating and sensing functions will show prosperous applications prospects in soft robotics.