You are cordially invited to graduate student seminar of the Chemistry Department.
This week’s speaker is Pedram Tootoonchian
Please see the seminar information below.
Pedram Tootoonchian
“Anisotropic Motions and Structures through Ion-Controlled Hydrogel Actuation”
Advisor: Bilge Baytekin
Date : Dec 19th, 2023, Tuesday
Time : 12:30
Place: SBZ-14
Title: Anisotropic Motions and Structures through Ion-Controlled Hydrogel Actuation
Abstract: The applications of soft materials in robotics for the sake of their manifold advantages are enhancing at a galloping rate. Among all, stimuli-responsive hydrogels have proved to be useful in such applications as actuators, sensors, and communicators. Taking advantage of anisotropic actuating in such hydrogels, new potential applications are introduced to soft robots. Here, we present the anisotropic actuation of the thermo-responsive agarose hydrogel due to doping with different salts. Different ions interact with the polymer and water differently, instigating different kinetics of the gel’s swelling/shrinkage. We studied the effect of each salt on the bending motion in both gel-bodied and paper-bodied robots and scrutinized the reason by FTIR-ATR, XRF, TGA, and DMA analyses. We then presented a variety of anisotropic 3D geometries that are feasible to obtain by using the chemistry of these ions in a monolayer hydrogel. This straightforward idea can be applied as a sensory part of a robot by showing differences in motion. In addition, as a side project in collaboration with SupraPolix Company, a bilayer, self-healing polymer film that actuates in water was synthesized. If designed properly, it can be used as a soft gripper for underwater objects.