Braided Liquid Crystal Elastomer Fiber Actuator with Programmable Deformation for Artificial Muscles

Liquid crystal elastomer fibers (LCEFs) are promising materials for constructing artificial muscles. However, the practical applications in smart wearable textiles and soft robots are still hindered due to their weak tensile performance and complex actuation integration. In this work, an LCEFs braided actuator is fabricated in which several LCEFs are integrated with silver-plated nylon strands using the textile braiding method. The silver-plated nylon strands can generate joule heat for triggering LCEFs and meanwhile strengthen the braided actuators. Owing to the braided structure, this LCEFs braided actuator exhibits large reversible contraction (34%) and actuation force (18.7 cN) with electrical stimulation at 0.6 V cm(-1). An artificial arm and a soft pump based on the LCEFs braided actuators is successfully developed. The LCEFs braided actuator can lift 205 times its weight as an artificial biceps. And the soft pump can achieve cyclic contraction and relaxation motions similar to the cardiac muscle under electrical stimulation and reach an output flow rate of 111 & mu;L s(-1). This braided integration concept would broaden the potential applications of LCEFs.