Responsive‐Hydrogel Aquabots

• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202401215
• Publication Date: 2024-07-30T05:50:36Z
• Authors: Shipei Zhu; Huanqing Cui; Yi Pan; Derek Popple; Ganhua Xie; Zachary Fink; Jiale Han; Alex Zettl; Ho Cheung Shum; Thomas P Russell
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; responsive hydrogels; Science; Q; Biomedical Engineering; 600; Bioengineering; Materials Engineering; all‐liquid robots; adaptive materials; flexible electronics; aqueous two‐phase systems; 03 medical and health sciences; Engineering; all-liquid robots; MSD-General; MSD-Structured Liquids; Generic health relevance; Electronics; Sensors and Digital Hardware; aqueous two-phase systems; Research Article

AbstractIt remains a challenge to produce soft robots that can mimic the responsive adaptability of living organisms. Rather than fabricating soft robots from bulk hydrogels,hydrogels are integrated into the interfacial assembly of aqueous two‐phase systems to generate ultra‐soft and elastic all‐aqueous aquabots that exhibit responsive adaptability, that can shrink on demand and have electrically conductive functions. The adaptive functions of the aquabots provide a new platform to develop minimally invasive surgical devices, targeted drug delivery systems, and flexible electronic sensors and actuators.