Sensors 2010, 10(3), 1810-1822; doi:10.3390/s100301810
Design of Self-Oscillating Gels and Application to Biomimetic Actuators
Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Received: 15 January 2010 / Revised: 10 February 2010 / Accepted: 16 February 2010 / Published: 5 March 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Actuators)
Abstract
As a novel biomimetic polymer, we have developed polymer gels with an autonomous self-oscillating function. This was achieved by utilizing oscillating chemical reactions, called the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, which is recognized as a chemical model for understanding several autonomous phenomena in biological systems. Under the coexistence of the reactants, the polymer gel undergoes spontaneous swelling-deswelling changes without any on-off switching by external stimuli. In this review, our recent studies on the self-oscillating polymer gels and application to biomimetic actuators are summarized. View Full-TextKeywords:
polymer gel; actuator; self-oscillation; biomimetics
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Yoshida, R. Design of Self-Oscillating Gels and Application to Biomimetic Actuators. Sensors 2010, 10, 1810-1822.