A Light-Driven Actuator Enables Versatile Motion for Smart Transportation and Contactless Delivery

摘要

Light-driven actuators are advantageous among various actuators because itenables remote, contactless, and localized manipulation without any complexequipment. However, most of them rely solely on the Marangoni effect whichis slow in velocity and would be quenched in liquid with low surface tensionforce. Here, a dual-mode actuator based on both the Marangoni effect andvapor jet flow is reported through the introduction of an excellent photothermalpolymer crosslinked by Fe~(3+)/catechol coordination bonds. The lightdrivenship not only realizes multimode motions such as forward, backward,rotation and obstacle crossing at the air/water interface, but also enablessmart transportation and contactless delivery which has not been realizedbefore. Moreover, the incorporation of photothermal conversion performanceand self-healing ability into near-infrared photo-responsive actuators at themolecular level can guarantee facile fabrication and prolong the service timeof the light-driven actuators which is the first dual-mode light-driven actuatorwith self-healing ability. This work provides a new strategy for the structuraldesign and application of the liquid/air interface light-driven self-propelleddevice.