Soft Robotics: Autonomous Motility of Polymer Films (Adv. Mater. 7/2018)

Abstract

In article number 1705616, Richard A. Vaia and co-workers use a common polymer, Nylon 6, to map out a behavioral state space for stimuli-interactive polymers that includes four distinct modes of locomotion. These materials simultaneously harvest energy and information from the environment and are shown to be amenable to composite design, which paves the way for incorporation of stimuli interactive materials into smart structures and devices.