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The highly stable air-working electro-active ionic polymer actuator based on nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel flexible electrode

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Abstract

Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped graphene aerogels (3D N-GAs) were prepared by ultrasonic stripping, hydrothermal reduction and freeze drying. Those N-GAs exhibited high-specific surface area, high nitrogen doping amount, and 3D porous network structure. Soft electro-active ionic polymer actuators were developed for the first time using this 3D N-GA soft electrode. The developed soft actuator exhibited large peak-to-peak displacement of 11.8 mm (3 V and 0.1 Hz) and high air working durability for 93.8% after 6 h cycles. These successful demonstrations elucidated the wide potential of 3D N-GA soft actuators for the next-generation soft robotic devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51603102), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018M630554).

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  1. College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Kai Xiang, Tian Chen & Yanni Wang

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  1. Kai Xiang
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  2. Tian Chen
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Correspondence to Tian Chen.

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Xiang, K., Chen, T. & Wang, Y. The highly stable air-working electro-active ionic polymer actuator based on nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel flexible electrode. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 32, 21395–21405 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-06643-6

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