Abstract
The advances in nanotechnology during the past two decades have led to several breakthroughs in material sciences. Ongoing and future tasks are related to the transfer of the unique properties of nanostructured materials to the macroscopic behaviour of composite structures and the system integration of novel materials for improved mechanical, electronic and optical devices. Nanostructured carbons, especially carbon nanotubes, are promising candidates as novel material for future applications in several fields. One of the big aims is the utilisation of the unique intrinsic mechanical and electronic properties of carbon nanotubes for sensing and actuation devices. The combination of excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical deformation makes carbon nanotubes ideal for applications in sensors and actuators and opens new possibilities in construction design of next generation robotic systems, which can be built with soft, bendable and stretchable materials. This chapter gives a brief overview on the properties of carbon nanotubes and their potential for actuators and sensors in soft robotics.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Iijima S (1991) Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon. Nature 245:56–58
Saito R, Dresselhaus G, Dresselhaus M (1998) Physical properties of carbon nanotubes. Imperial college press
Louie SG (2001) Electronic properties, junctions and defects of carbon nanotubes. In: Carbon nanotubes – synthesis, structure, properties and applications, Springer
Martel L, Schmidt T, Shea HR et al (1998) Single- and multi-wall carbon nanotube field-effect transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 73(17):2447–2449
Hong S, Myung S (2007) A flexible approach to mobility. Nature Nanotechnology 2:207–208
Szabo A, Perri C, Csato A (2010) Synthesis methods of carbon nanotubes and related ma-terials. Materials 3:3092–3140
Arnold MS, Stupp SI, Hersam MC (2005) Enrichment of carbon nanotubes by diam ter in density gradients. Nano Lett. 5:713–718
Arnold MS, Green AA, Hulvat JF et al (2006) Sorting carbon nanotubes by electronic structure via density differentiation. Nature Nanotechnology 1:60–65
Flavel SF, Moore KE, Pfohl M et al (2014) Separation of single-walled carbon nanotubes with a gel permeation chromatography system. ACS Nano 8(2):1817–1826
De S, King PJ, Lyons PE et al (2010) Size effects and the problem with percolation in nanostructured transparent conductors. ACS Nano 4(12):7064–7072
Dan B, Irvin GC, Pasquali M (2009) Continuous and scalable fabrication of transparent conductive carbon nanotube films. ACS Nano 3(4):835–843
Mirri F, Ma AWK, Hsu TT (2012) High-performance carbon nanotube transparent con-ductive films by scalable dip coating. ACS Nano 6(11):9737–9744
Kosidlo U, Omastova M, Micisik M et al (2013) Nanocarbon based ionic actuators – a review. Smart Mater Struct 22: 104022
Nemat-Nasser, S, Thomas C. (2001) Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators as artificial muscles. Reality, potential and challenges. SPIE Press Monograph 139–191.
Qu L., Peng Q, Dai L et al (2008) Carbon nanotube electroactive polymer materials: op-portunities and challenges. MRS Bulletin 33:215–224.
Fukushima T, Asaka K, Kosaka A et al (2005) Fully Plastic Actuator through Layer-by-Layer Casting with Ionic-Liquid-Based Bucky Gel. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44(16):2410–2413
Vohrer U, Kolaric I, Haque MH et al (2004) Carbon nanotube sheets for the use as artifi-cial muscles. Carbon 42(5–6):1159–1164
Gao M, Dai L, Baughman RH et al (2000) Electrochemical properties of aligned nano-tube arrays: basis of new electromechanical actuators. In: Proc. SPIE – Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. 3987:18–24
Fraysse J, Minett AI, Jaschinski O. et al (2002) Carbon nanotubes acting like actuators. Carbon 40, 1735–1739
Spinks GM, Mottaghitalab V, Bahrami-Samani M et al (2006) Carbon-Nanotube-Reinforced Polyaniline Fibers for High-Strength Artificial Muscles. Adv. Mater 18(5):637–649
Dahiya RS, Valle M (2013) Robotic tactile sensing. Springer
Lu N, Kim D-H (2014) Flexible and stretchable electronics paving the way for soft robot-ics. Soft Robotics 1(1): 53–62
Ackermann T, Sahakalkan S, Zhang Y et al (2014) Improved performance of transparent silver nanowire electrodes by adding CNTs. In: 8th IEEE NEMS, in print
Tokuno T, Nogi M, Suganuma K (2012) Hybrid transparent electrodes of silver nan-owires and carbon nanotubes: a low temperature solution process. Nanoscale Research Letters 7:281
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Addinall, R., Ackermann, T., Kolaric, I. (2015). Nanostructured Materials for Soft Robotics – Sensors and Actuators. In: Verl, A., Albu-Schäffer, A., Brock, O., Raatz, A. (eds) Soft Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44506-8_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44506-8_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-44505-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-44506-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)