A magnetically and thermally controlled liquid metal variable stiffness material
A magnetically and thermally controlled liquid metal variable stiffness material
Smart materials that can actively tune their stiffness are of great interest to many fields, including the construction industry, medical devices, industrial machines, and soft robotics. However, developing a material that can offer a large range of stiffness change and rapid tuning remains a challenge. Herein, a liquid metal variable stiffness material (LMVSM) that can actively and rapidly tune its stiffness by applying an external magnetic field or by changing the temperature is developed. The LMVSM is composed of three layers: a gallium–iron magnetorheological fluid (Ga–Fe MRF) layer for providing variable stiffness, a nickel–chromium wire layer for Joule heating, and a soft heat dissipation layer for accelerating heating and rapid cooling. The stiffness can be rapidly increased by 4 times upon the application of a magnetic field or 10 times by solidifying the Ga–Fe MRF. Finally, the LMVSM is attached to a pneumatically controlled soft robotic gripper to actively tune its load capacity, demonstrating its potential to be further developed into smart components that can be widely adopted by smart devices.
liquid metals, magnetically activated, soft actuator, thermally activated, variable stiffness
Zhang, Mingkui
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Chen, Xuanhan
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Sun, Yongwei
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Gan, Minfeng
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Liu, Maze
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Tang, Shi Yang
1d0f15c6-2a3e-4bad-a3d8-fc267db93ed4
Zhang, Shiwu
da008f91-71fa-42fb-879e-68b91429e1d6
Li, Xiangpeng
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Li, Weihua
e2555036-0e48-425a-afeb-db6ffba5238e
Sun, Lining
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1 March 2023
Zhang, Mingkui
18ef5e1f-1df2-4d49-9a16-902e7d5e009d
Chen, Xuanhan
f13d4bcc-a04a-43ee-a5cf-10f03ddf0fab
Sun, Yongwei
4f75d4a6-1f06-426a-8c10-33bfdfdebcec
Gan, Minfeng
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Liu, Maze
085c2bdf-2a0b-4992-b6b0-1e539ac3d242
Tang, Shi Yang
1d0f15c6-2a3e-4bad-a3d8-fc267db93ed4
Zhang, Shiwu
da008f91-71fa-42fb-879e-68b91429e1d6
Li, Xiangpeng
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Li, Weihua
e2555036-0e48-425a-afeb-db6ffba5238e
Sun, Lining
e4660e06-1315-4059-985f-2cb1e50c5fc8
Zhang, Mingkui, Chen, Xuanhan, Sun, Yongwei, Gan, Minfeng, Liu, Maze, Tang, Shi Yang, Zhang, Shiwu, Li, Xiangpeng, Li, Weihua and Sun, Lining
(2023)
A magnetically and thermally controlled liquid metal variable stiffness material.
Advanced Engineering Materials, 25 (6), [2201296].
(doi:10.1002/adem.202201296).
Abstract
Smart materials that can actively tune their stiffness are of great interest to many fields, including the construction industry, medical devices, industrial machines, and soft robotics. However, developing a material that can offer a large range of stiffness change and rapid tuning remains a challenge. Herein, a liquid metal variable stiffness material (LMVSM) that can actively and rapidly tune its stiffness by applying an external magnetic field or by changing the temperature is developed. The LMVSM is composed of three layers: a gallium–iron magnetorheological fluid (Ga–Fe MRF) layer for providing variable stiffness, a nickel–chromium wire layer for Joule heating, and a soft heat dissipation layer for accelerating heating and rapid cooling. The stiffness can be rapidly increased by 4 times upon the application of a magnetic field or 10 times by solidifying the Ga–Fe MRF. Finally, the LMVSM is attached to a pneumatically controlled soft robotic gripper to actively tune its load capacity, demonstrating its potential to be further developed into smart components that can be widely adopted by smart devices.
Text
Adv Eng Mater - 2022 - Zhang
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e-pub ahead of print date: 11 November 2022
Published date: 1 March 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
M.Z., X.C., and Y.S. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported in part by a grant from the NSFC under grant no. 61873339, a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province under grant no. BK20190096, a grant from the Science and Technology Projects of Suzhou under grant no. SLC201902, and supported by the State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics. S.‐Y.T. is grateful for the support from the Royal Society (IEC/NSFC/201223).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Engineering Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Keywords:
liquid metals, magnetically activated, soft actuator, thermally activated, variable stiffness
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 481924
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/481924
ISSN: 1438-1656
PURE UUID: 3acdea14-5ddd-4751-bfed-7d51bbb871eb
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Date deposited: 13 Sep 2023 17:09
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:13
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Contributors
Author:
Mingkui Zhang
Author:
Xuanhan Chen
Author:
Yongwei Sun
Author:
Minfeng Gan
Author:
Maze Liu
Author:
Shi Yang Tang
Author:
Shiwu Zhang
Author:
Xiangpeng Li
Author:
Weihua Li
Author:
Lining Sun
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