Photonic artificial muscles: from micro robots to tissue engineering

Martella, Daniele; Nocentini, Sara; Parmeggiani, Camilla; Wiersma, Diederik S.

doi:10.1039/d0fd00032a

Cited by 22 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…1h , the prepared SWFA exhibits diverse deformation behaviors (twisting, bending, coiling, winding, and tightening) upon near infrared (NIR) irradiation (Supplementary Movie 1 ). To satisfy the second requirement, a main-chain LCE doped with graphene that owns superior photothermal performance 23 is used as artificial photonic muscle material 24 to build SWFAs, to offer fast and powerful photo-mechanical actuation (Supplementary Fig. 7 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phototunable self-oscillating system driven by a self-winding fiber actuator

2021

Nat Commun

124

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Self-oscillating systems that enable autonomous, continuous motions driven by an unchanging, constant stimulus would have significant applications in intelligent machines, advanced robotics, and biomedical devices. Despite efforts to gain self-oscillations have been made through artificial systems using responsive soft materials of gels or liquid crystal polymers, these systems are plagued with problems that restrict their practical applicability: few available oscillation modes due to limited degrees of freedom, inability to control the evolution between different modes, and failure under loading. Here we create a phototunable self-oscillating system that possesses a broad range of oscillation modes, controllable evolution between diverse modes, and loading capability. This self-oscillating system is driven by a photoactive self-winding fiber actuator designed and prepared through a twistless strategy inspired by the helix formation of plant-tendrils, which endows the system with high degrees of freedom. It enables not only controllable generation of three basic self-oscillations but also production of diverse complex oscillatory motions. Moreover, it can work continuously over 1270000 cycles without obvious fatigue, exhibiting high robustness. We envision that this system with controllable self-oscillations, loading capability, and mechanical robustness will be useful in autonomous, self-sustained machines and devices with the core feature of photo-mechanical transduction.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phototunable self-oscillating system driven by a self-winding fiber actuator

2021

Nat Commun

124

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“…Interestingly, the improvement in the kinetics of activation and relaxation did not follow the same trend in the two processes (Figure S2, Supporting Information), as expected, due to the asymmetric response of the material. [ 28 ] A decrease in contraction time as a function of an increased number of activated ILUs was observed that could be attributed to a thermal effect of the light source on the LCE strip. Conversely, the increase in temperature resulted in a longer relaxation time of the system, due to the concomitant heat dissipation upon switching OFF the ILUs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoresponsive Polymer‐Based Biomimetic Contractile Units as Building Block for Artificial Muscles

Vitale

Grandinetti²,

Querceto

et al. 2022

Macro Materials & Eng

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Loss of muscular mechanical function occurs in several diseasesaffecting millions of people worldwide, including heart failure, stroke, and neuromuscular disorders. To date, no medical or surgical treatments can restore muscular contractility, and the development of artificial muscles is of extreme interest. Mimicking biological muscles, which are optimized systems displaying quick reaction times, is not trivial; only few examples are reported, mainly focused on the use of biomimetic smart materials. Among them, liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) can be biocompatible, show contraction parameters comparable to those of native striated muscles, and are able to effectively potentiate cardiac contraction in vitro. To go further and develop in vivo implantable devices, the integration of the stimulation system with the LCE material represents an essential step. Here, a light-stimulated biomimetic contractile unit (BCU), combining ultra-thin photoresponsive LCE films and mini-LED (mLED) matrixes is described. BCU performance (in terms of extent and kinetics of contractile force and shortening) can be fine-tuned by modulating both mLED light power and spatial stimulation patterns, allowing to reproduce mechanical dynamics of native muscles. These results pave the way for the development of novel LCE-based contraction assist devices for cardiac, skeletal, or smooth muscle support by assembling multiple BCUs.

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“…The biological uses of LCEs are limited to their performance as a muscular support or a partial alternative, that such functionality is due to the phase transition phenomenon, induceing an enormous alteration in biomedical engineering. 14,55 The ability to reproduce the correct morphogenesis in vitro is mandatory to engineered human tissues with the same characteristics of the targeted native ones. 6 Due to the liquid crystalline properties of various cell collectives providing the necessity of scaffold surface topology, an exciting possibility is to translate the organization of synthetic liquid crystals directly into a cell culture medium.…”

Section: The Importance Of Tissue-engineered Lce Scaffoldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Importance Of Tissue-engineered Lce Scaffoldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of Liquid Crystalline Elastomers on Biological Cell Response: A Review

Fallah-Darrehchi

Zahedi

Harirchi

et al. 2023

ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.

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Dynamic interplay between extracellular matrix with anisotropic structure and biological cells has directed the scaffold path of development toward the utilization of actuation-responsive biomaterials. Among stimuliresponsive polymers, liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs), owing to attachment of highly anisotropic mesogenic units to the amorphous elastomeric chains, are able to reveal reversible orientational order. Dynamic order− disorder phase transition and stimuli-responsiveness are the main factors to consider them as rationally smart mimickers of biological cell topology. This Review explains briefly the structures and synthesis methods of LCEs as well as their materiobiology with an emphasis on biochemical and biomechanical features of cells from molecular view. In this regard, some indispensable factors such as quasi-liquid crystalline behavior of cells, degree of orientational order in different cells and liquid crystalline induced topographical signals as growth enhancing agent for cells are investigated. Moreover, the interactions of cellliquid crystalline substrate and the performance of LCE scaffolds on various cell lines response are given as an overview.

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Photonic artificial muscles: from micro robots to tissue engineering

Abstract: We discuss the use of elastomers and combinations of elastomers with cells for (micro) robotics, for photonics, and for biomedical applications.

Cited by 22 publications

References 61 publications

Phototunable self-oscillating system driven by a self-winding fiber actuator

Phototunable self-oscillating system driven by a self-winding fiber actuator

Photoresponsive Polymer‐Based Biomimetic Contractile Units as Building Block for Artificial Muscles

Performance of Liquid Crystalline Elastomers on Biological Cell Response: A Review

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