Multimaterial 3D Printing of Highly Stretchable Silicone Elastomers

Self-healing and 3D printing prefabricatable physically crosslinked hydrogels were prepared by copolymerization of butyl acrylate, 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate, and methacrylic acid, followed by soaking in water.

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Femtosecond Laser Fabricated Elastomeric Superhydrophobic Surface with Stretching-Enhanced Water Repellency

Nanoscale Research Letters ◽

10.1186/s11671-019-3140-6 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Huan Yang ◽

Kaichen Xu ◽

Changwen Xu ◽

Dianyuan Fan ◽

Yu Cao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Femtosecond Laser ◽

Superhydrophobic Surface ◽

Water Repellency ◽

Superhydrophobic Surfaces ◽

Textured Surface ◽

Liquid Droplets ◽

Silicone Elastomers ◽

Highly Stretchable ◽

First Time ◽

Application Prospects

Abstract Highly stretchable and robust superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted tremendous interest due to their broad application prospects. In this work, silicone elastomers were chosen to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces with femtosecond laser texturing method, and high stretchability and tunable adhesion of the superhydrophobic surfaces were demonstrated successfully. To our best knowledge, it is the first time flexible superhydrophobic surfaces with a bearable strain up to 400% are fabricated by simple laser ablation. The test also shows that the strain brings no decline of water repellency but an enhancement to the superhydrophobic surfaces. In addition, a stretching-induced transition from “petal” state to “lotus” state of the laser-textured surface was also demonstrated by non-loss transportation of liquid droplets. Our results manifest that femtosecond laser ablating silicone elastomer could be a promising way for fabricating superhydrophobic surface with distinct merits of high stretchability, tunable adhesion, robustness, and non-fluorination, which is potentially useful for microfluidics, biomedicine, and liquid repellent skin.

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A Review on Development of Soft Gripper Using 4D Printing

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING ◽

10.35121/ijapie202007348 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 49-55

Author(s):

Ashutosh Singh ◽

◽

Ravi Butola ◽

Jitendra Bhaskar ◽

Keyword(s):

3D Printing ◽

Shape Memory ◽

Advanced Materials ◽

Soft Robotics ◽

4D Printing ◽

Silicone Elastomers ◽

System Architectures ◽

Shape Memory Materials ◽

End Effectors ◽

Future Work

Improvements in soft robotics, materials, and flexible gripper technology made it possible for the soft grippers to advance rapidly. A brief analysis of soft robotic grippers featuring various material collections, physical rules, and system architectures is provided here. Soft gripping is divided into three technologies, enabling gripping with: a) actuation, b) material used, and c) Use of 3D printing in fabricating grippers. An informative analysis is provided of every form. Similar to stiff grippers, flexible and elastic end-effectors may also grab or control a broader variety of objects. The inherent versatility of the materials is increasingly being used to study advanced materials and soft structures, particularly silicone elastomers, shape-memory materials, active polymers, and gels, in the development of compact, simple, and more versatile grippers. For future work, enhanced structures, techniques, and senses play a prominent part.

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