Stimuli-Responsive Composites for Advanced Sensors and Actuators

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Over the last 25 years, the field of robotics has made incredible strides, with impact in disciplines including manufacturing, space exploration, and medical rehabilitation. The next phase in hardware development is focused on implementing `soft' materials that mimic biological organisms. Soft materials with the ability to both sense and respond to their environments are increasingly replacing conventional materials in a variety of robotic devices. Beyond soft robotics, applications of these systems include wearable electronic devices (to monitor human health) and autonomous systems that can perform programmed tasks in complex environments. To bring these applications to life, soft, inexpensive, bendable and flexible sensors and actuators (moving parts) are needed. Conventional electronic and robotic components - which are made of rigid metals - are not an option. Polymers exhibit some desirable features for soft robotics and electronics; they are soft and flexible, their chemical properties can be tuned, and they can be processed using a variety of techniques. Biopolymers - which are produced from biological sources - are more environmentally-friendly than oil-based materials, and they can be biocompatible and/or degradable. To bestow polymers and biopolymers with the functionality needed for use in soft sensors and actuators, they can be combined with nanomaterials to form polymer nanocomposites. These nanomaterials have unique chemical, optical, and electronic properties; some of these properties are highly sensitive to changes in the local environments. The purpose of this research program is to develop materials that can sense changes in their surroundings and undergo changes in properties. There are two main themes: (1) to develop stimuli-responsive composites for chemical sensing, and (2) to engineer materials that undergo a reversible change in shape in response to light. To develop the proposed materials and devices, it is critical to study and control how mixing and patterning these materials affects (1) the arrangement of nanoparticles in the polymer and (2) the resulting properties (physical, chemical, and electronic) of the composite. I will develop novel strategies to translate local changes in nanoparticle properties into measurable and readable electrical signals and/or mechanical deformation. I will continue to design techniques and processing methods to pattern these materials on the macroscale while controlling the arrangement of the particles within the polymer, and I will integrate these materials in devices. The functional devices that will be demonstrated have applications in intelligent systems, soft robotics, and biomedical materials. 2 PhD students, 2 MSc students, 1 postdoctoral fellow and 5 undergraduate students will be trained with skills in advanced materials and manufacturing. They will gain fabrication and analysis skills using the tools both in my lab and at the U of Alberta Nanofabrication Facility.