Scientists from Donghua University in China have figured out how to manipulate graphene paper, which is about 200 times stronger than steel by weight, to fold on its own by applying heat. They believe this origami-inspired paper, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon, could be used to make miniature robots, artificial muscles and or devices for tissue engineering.
“In the near future, it even could bring changes to people’s lives,” Jiuke Mu, a Ph.D. student at Donghua University and one of the material’s inventors, told Live Science, and gave the example of smart clothing, “which could change its shape and style in response to body temperature, environmental changes or other gentle stimulations.”
How the technology works is that carefully selected sections of graphene paper are treated so that they naturally absorb water vapor from the atmosphere. With the application of heat from lights, the water is released and the sections shrink and bend as a result. Removing the heat source has the opposite affect. Some examples of what can be created thus far includes a device that actually walks, a self-assembling box and an artificial hand that can pick up and hold objects that weigh five times as much as itself.
Beyond just making robotics or devices, the researchers believe the graphene paper could eventually be used to create artificial muscles, particularly because the stress generated by one of the paper devices was reportedly nearly two orders of magnitude higher than that of mammalian skeletal muscles.
Other research has previously been done with self-folding materials, but generally have required electrical circuitry, unusual environmental conditions or complicated combinations of usually fragile materials. With the graphene paper, Mu and his colleagues reportedly created a device that was still 90 percent effective, even after being folded 500 times.
“Compared with other kinds of self-folding materials, the all-graphene-based structure is simpler, its response behavior is faster and the output is more efficient,” Mu said. “More importantly, its origami and walking behavior is remotely controlled.”
The researchers’ results were explained in a paper published Nov. 6 in the journal Science Advances. The technology looks promising, but there is still a ways to go before any practical applications of the paper can be realized, according to Mu.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
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