Photo-guided azopolymer hydrogel actuators
David Urban, Ryota Toyohara, Marcel Rey, Daniele Martella, Dag Roar Hjelme, Andrea Alessandrini, Toshiro Ohashi, Emiliano Descrovi · 2026
Read Photo-guided azopolymer hydrogel actuators by David Urban, Ryota Toyohara, Marcel Rey, Daniele Martella, Dag Roar Hjelme, Andrea Alessandrini, Toshiro Ohashi, Emiliano Descrovi (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13582930.txt.
Description
David Urban and co-authors build light guided soft actuators from a polymer and gel mix. Their paper from 2026 deals with polymers that change shape under light in a set direction. Such polymers were used mostly to reshape dry parts once, since each new shape just stacks on the last with no way back.
The team embeds tiny polymer specks in a soft gel. The specks give the light driven bend, while the gel spreads the bend through the whole piece. Spring forces in the gel pull the piece back, so shapes can be overwritten. The mix also fixes weak hold in water and low bend in larger parts. Uses in chip scale fluid tools are the stated aim.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | David Urban, Ryota Toyohara, Marcel Rey, Daniele Martella, Dag Roar Hjelme, Andrea Alessandrini, Toshiro Ohashi, Emiliano Descrovi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |