Photomechanical responses of carbon nanotube/polymer actuators

Abstract

Recent studies have investigated the photomechanical properties of carbon nanotubes which can be utilized to construct optical actuators. In this paper we compare the photomechanical response from single-wall and multi-wall carbon nanotube/polymer systems in multilayer and nanocomposite actuator constructions. Incorporating polymers in the actuators, single-wall and multi-wall nanotubes show similar photomechanical responses, which are directly related to prestrain and nanotube alignments. Nanotube/polymer multilayered actuators exhibit comparable actuation strokes to the nanocomposite counterparts, while enabling easier sample construction, intact polymer and nanotube properties, and compatibility to CMOS/MEMS processes. The photomechanical responses can be well understood based on affine modelling of photomechanical responses.