DMREF: Programmable Chemomechanical Materials

非技术摘要该项目从七鳃鳗的蜿蜒运动中汲取灵感，其中沿着脊柱运行的神经元依次兴奋，导致肌肉组织收缩，从而推动七鳃鳗。这种行为背后的基本原理已被理解，该团队致力于设计具有生命物质这些特性的非生命材料。他们将开发纯合成材料，这些材料将自主运行，仅由化学驱动，无需电力、计算机或电机。这些材料将执行多种功能并被外部触发以改变其行为。因此，这项工作将为新兴的软机器人领域建立精确和可编程化学控制的新范例，其中柔软的组织状材料取代现在工厂车间机器人中使用的刚性材料。技术摘要该项目的目标是开发纯合成的化学机械材料，以可编程的速率和节律模拟生物过程，例如心脏的跳动。长期目标是阐明基于反应扩散化学的活性软物质的基本物理原理，从而实现能够化学控制和化学机械传导的材料工程。这项研究将解决化学机械材料设计中的两个基本挑战。第一个是了解和开发氧化还原敏感凝胶中的体积转变机制，通过该机制可以驱动力。将在从纳米到毫米的长度尺度上探测由一系列有前途的构建模块设计的材料，以充分阐明凝胶结构和动力学。这些发现将被输入原子和介观计算机模型，这反过来又将为具有所需性能的下一代材料的化学合成提供信息。第二个挑战是设计一种由一系列微米级分隔反应器组成的控制机制，这些反应器包含振荡化学反应，并通过扩散物理联网。将控制和驱动子系统耦合将产生化学响应凝胶，其体积可以与可预测和可调节的化学活性相一致地改变。此类材料将具有迄今为止仅在生物体中发现的属性，例如哺乳动物舌头的灵活性、人类肠道的脉动收缩以及植物的向日光性。因此，这项工作将为新兴的软机器人领域建立精确和可编程化学机械控制的新范例。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis project draws inspiration from the sinuous motion of a lamprey, in which neurons running down the spinal column are excited in sequence causing the musculature to contract, thereby propelling the lamprey. The fundamental principles underlying this behavior are understood, and this team seeks to engineer nonliving materials that possess these properties of living matter. They will develop purely synthetic materials that will operate autonomously, driven solely by chemistry without electricity, computers, or motors. These materials will execute multiple functions and be externally triggered to modify their behavior. Thus, this work will establish a new paradigm of precise and programmable chemical control for the fledgling field of soft robotics, in which soft, tissue-like materials replace the rigid, hard materials now found in robots on factory floors.TECHNICAL SUMMARYThe objective of the project is to develop purely synthetic, chemomechanical materials that emulate biological processes, such as the beating of a heart, at programmable rates and rhythms. The long-term goal is to elucidate the fundamental physical principles of active soft matter based on reaction-diffusion chemistry, enabling engineering of materials capable of chemical control and chemomechanical transduction. This research will address two fundamental challenges in the design of chemomechanical materials. The first is to understand and develop mechanisms of volume transitions in redox-sensitive gels, by which forces can be actuated. Materials engineered from a selection of promising building blocks will be probed over length scales ranging from nanometers to millimeters in order to fully elucidate gel structure and dynamics. These findings will be fed into atomistic and mesoscopic computer models, which will in turn inform the chemical synthesis of next-generation materials with desirable properties. The second challenge is to engineer a control mechanism comprised of an array of micron-scale compartmentalized reactors that contain an oscillating chemical reaction, and are physically networked via diffusion. Coupling the control and actuation sub-systems will yield chemically responsive gels that can change volume in concert with predictable and tunable chemical activity. Such materials will have attributes heretofore found only in living matter, such as flexibility in mammalian tongues, pulsatile contractions in human intestines, and heliotropism in plants. Thus, this work will establish a new paradigm of precise and programmable chemomechanical control for the fledgling field of soft robotics.