FULL PAPER
Photothermal Actuators
Photothermal Bimorph Actuators with In-Built Cooler
for Light Mills, Frequency Switches, and Soft Robots
Jingjing Li, Rui Zhang, Linlin Mou, Monica Jung de Andrade, Xiaoyu Hu, Kaiqing Yu,
Jinkun Sun, Tianjiao Jia, Yuanyuan Dou, Hong Chen, Shaoli Fang, Dong Qian,
and Zunfeng Liu*
Photothermal bimorph actuators are widely used for smart devices, which
are generally operated in a room temperature environment, therefore a low
temperature difference for actuation without deteriorating the performance
is preferred. The strategy for the actuator is assembling a broadband-light
absorption layer for volume expansion and an additional water evaporation
layer for cooling and volume shrinkage on a passive layer. The response
time and temperature-change-normalized bending speed under NIR, white,
and blue light illumination are at the same level of high performance, fast
photothermal actuators based on polymer or polymer composites. The
classical beam theory and finite element simulations are also conducted to
understand the actuation mechanism of the actuator. A new type of light
mill is designed based on a wing-flapping mechanism and a light-modulated
frequency switch. A fast-walking robot (with a speed of 26 mm s−1) and a
fast-and-strong mechanical gripper with a large weight-lifting ratio (≈2142),
respectively, are also demonstrated.
1. Introduction
In nature, many animals and plants demonstrate multi-
modal locomotor capabilities using asymetrical expansion of
bilayer structures, such as wing flapping of birds and insects,[1]
J. Li, L. Mou, X. Hu, K. Yu, J. Sun, T. Jia, Y. Dou, Dr. Z. Liu
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology
Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials
College of Pharmacy
Nankai University
Tianjin 300071, China
E-mail: liuzunfeng@nankai.edu.cn
R. Zhang, Prof. D. Qian
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, TX 75080, USA
Dr. M. Jung de Andrade, Dr. S. Fang
Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute
University of Texas at Dallas
Richardson, TX 75080, USA
Prof. H. Chen
School of Materials Science and Energy Engineering
Foshan University
Foshan 528325, China
The ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article
can be found under https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201808995.
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201808995
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hygroscopic seed dispersal,[2] tendril
curling of climbing plants,[3] and trap
closure of carnivorous plants.[4] Inspired
by these natural organisms, soft robots,
smart control, and motor system have
been developed based on artificial
bimorph actuators.[5] Photothermal actua-
tors and devices are highly desirable in
the field of bionics and material science
because of the specific advantages such
as wireless remote control, abundant light
source, and non-electromagnetic distur-
bance.[6] For instance, a soft robot made by
reduced graphene oxide-carbon nanotube/
polydimethylsiloxane (rGO-CNT/PDMS)
composite film can move forward at
an average speed of 1.6 cm s−1.[7] A soft
gripper was designed based on sodium
alginate/WS2 actuator with a high weight-
lifting ratio of 500.[8] A light mill was devel-
oped based on liquid crystal actuators.[9]
Although limited success has been reported, the performance
of photothermally driven smart devices is still not acceptable
for practice due to the limitations of bending speed, bending
amplitude, and symmetrical reversibility of the photothermal
actuators.[10] Generally large temperature-difference is generally
used to achieve large bending amplitude in actuation.[11] As we
know, most of the smart devices are used at room temperature
in daily life, therefore it is highly desirable to operate the photo-
thermal actuator under relatively small temperature change
without deteriorating the actuation performance.[12] Moreover,
devices that can be controlled via a broad spectrum of light
are strongly preferred for different operation conditions and
needs.[13] Additionally, the potential applications of bimorph
actuators should be very broad but currently still largely unex-
plored,[9] for example, photothermal switch with frequency
modulation has not been realized, which is important for fre-
quency signal transmission and communication.
In most of conventional bilayer photothermal actuators, it is
composed of a thermal expansion layer and a passive layer, and
the actuator bends to the passive layer upon heat generated by
light irradiation due to the mismatch in coefficient of thermal
expansion (CTE).[10] Attempts have been made to increase the
bending speed, response time, and bending amplitude of the
bimorph actuators by increasing the difference in CTE or
the temperature difference between the two layers and reducing
the thickness.[5c,11]
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We here have designed trilayered photothermal actuators
containing a cooling layer, which also enhance the actuation
performance by water evaporation-induced volume shrinking. It
can achieve fast responses of 0.36, 0.20, and 0.27 s under NIR,
white, and blue light, respectively, at relatively small temperature
changes (9.9, 4.9, and 12.8 °C). The trilayered photothermal actu-
ator achieves higher bending speed (71.1 cm−1 s−1 and 725ο s−1)
at much lower temperature increase (9.9 and 4.9 °C) under NIR
and white light than the equivalent bilayered actuator without a
cooling layer. We designed a light-modulated electrical switch
with frequency modulation and a new type of light mill based
on a wing-flapping mechanism. We further demonstrated the
application of trilayered actuator as a soft crawl robot with a fast
speed (≈26 mm s−1) and a fast-and-strong mechanical gripper
with a large weight-lifting ratio (≈2142), respectively.
2. Results and Discussion
2.1. Physical Properties and Actuation Mechanism
of the Actuators
The thermal expansion layer is constituted by a carbon black
slurry, which absorbs a broad spectrum of light and converts it
to heat, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film is used as a
passive layer. The cooling layer is made by coating waterborne
acrylic adhesive on the other side of the PET film, which can
produce water desorption upon heating. The water evapora-
tion results in decrease of film temperature, accompanied by
volume shrinkage, which can increase the bending amplitude
of the actuator. It is worth mentioning that this acrylic layer also
has a certain adhesion, so it can increase the interaction force
between the film and the object when used as a smart gripper.
Briefly, this photothermal trilayered actuator containing an
in-built cooling system was prepared as follows. A shading ink
containing carbon black was coated on a PET film to form a black
ink layer, and then an acrylic adhesive was coated on the other
side of the PET film to form different thickness, as shown in
Figure 1a. The thickness of the ink, PET, and acrylic adhesive is
about 1.2, 1.6, and 2 µm, respectively (Figure 1b). The scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) image of the ink surface shows that a
large number of carbon black particles are deposited on the sur-
face of ink layer (Figure 1c). We refer to such an ink-PET-acrylic
trilayered actuator as an IPAT-x, where the notation x indicates
that the film thickness of the acrylic layer is x µm. The IPAT-0
denotes an ink-PET bilayered structure, which is used as a con-
trol sample to study the function of the acrylic layer (Figure S1,
Supporting Information). Similarly, a PET-acrylic bilayered
(PAB) film was prepared to study the function of the ink layer,
where the thickness of the acrylic layer is 2 µm. Unless other-
wise specified, IPAT-2 and IPAT-0 actuators are used for further
investigations in this paper.
In order to investigate the photothermal effect of the ink
layer and the cooling effect of the acrylic layer, the following
characterizations are carried out on the IPAT-2, IPAT-0, and
PAB films. UV–vis absorption is first carried out on the ink
layer, the PET layer, and the acrylic layer, as shown in Figure S2
in the Supporting Information. The ink layer shows strong
absorption over a wide spectral band from the visible to the
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NIR region (400−2600 nm), whereas the PET and acrylic
layer exhibit almost no absorption in this range, indicating
that the ink layer may have strong photothermal effect. Then
photothermal experiments are carried out on the IPAT-0 film
under NIR irradiation. The temperature increased from 25.0 to
53.7 °C over 5 s (heating of 28.7 °C) for the IPAT-0 film under
100 mW cm−2 NIR irradiation, while much lower temperature
change (4.5 °C) was found in the PET film (Figure 1d) under
the same conditions, indicating strong photothermal effect
of the ink layer. Compared with the IPAT-0 film, a much less
rise in temperature from 25.0 to 37.1 °C over 5 s (heating of
12.1 °C) was observed for the IPAT-2 film under the same con-
ditions, demonstrating strong cooling effect of the acrylic layer.
To research the origin of this cooling effect of the acrylic
layer, we investigated the water-evaporation dynamics of the
IPAT-2 film, which showed that the acrylic layer lost 5.1 wt%
in water over 6 s when it was exposed to 50 mW cm−2 NIR
irradiation (Figure S3, Supporting Information). In contrast,
the absence of an acrylic layer in the IPAT-0 film caused it to
exhibit minimal water loss (0.8 wt%) under the same condi-
tions (Figure S3, Supporting Information). Therefore, photo-
thermally induced water evaporation in acrylic layer resulted
in lower temperature rise in IPAT-2 than that in IPAT-0. By
switching off NIR illumination, the film can be restored to its
original mass by adsorbing water from the air (Figure S4a,b,
Supporting Information), indicating a reversible water adsorp-
tion/desorption in acrylic layer. The fast reabsorption of water
may be ascribed to the high affinity of the acrylic layer to water.
In order to elaborate the interaction mechanism of water mol-
ecules in the acrylic layer, we investigated the Fourier transform
infrared (FTIR) spectrum of the acrylic layer at water-adsorption
and freeze-dried states (Figure S5, Supporting Information).
The absorption band at 3417 cm−1 of the freeze-dried acrylic
layer is attributed to the stretching vibration of the hydroxyl
groups (−OH), and the FTIR spectrum of the wet acrylic layer
has a redshift at 3448 cm−1, indicating strong interaction
between adsorption water molecule and the hydroxyl groups.[14]
We then measured the thermal expansion coefficient of each
layer in the IPAT-2 actuator to understand their mechanical
function in actuation. The results show that there is large
mismatch in CTE between the ink layer (106 × 10−6 K−1) and
the PET layer (40 × 10−6 K−1), which would result in bending
toward the PET side upon light irradiation. We experimentally
measured the volume change of the acrylic layer upon heating
in air, and the results showed that the volume decreased
due to water evaporation. Therefore, an equivalent CTE of the
acrylic layer is introduced here and determined as a negative
value of −2.8  × 10−3 K−1 (Figure S6, Supporting Information).
This shrinking of the acrylic layer might enhance the bending
actuation of the IPAT-2 actuator. Therefore, it is expected that
the IPAT-2 film can generate bending actuation under light
irradiation, as schematic illustrated in Figure 1e.
2.2. Photothermal Actuation under NIR, White, and Blue Light
Based on the strong light absorption of the ink layer in a
broadband spectrum, photothermal actuation of the IPAT-2
actuator was investigated under irradiation of different types of
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Figure 1.  Fabrication and characterization of IPAT-x actuator. a) Schematic illustration of the fabrication process of the IPAT-x actuator. b) Cross-
sectional SEM image of the IPAT-2 actuator. c) SEM image of the ink surface. d) Temperature as a function of time for the ink layer of IPAT-2, IPAT-0, and
PAB films under 100 mW cm−2 NIR irradiation (760−2600 nm). e) Schematic illustration of an IPAT-x actuator showing the synergistic effect between
the photothermal expansion of an ink layer and the shrinkage of an acrylic layer via water evaporation.

light including NIR, white, and blue light at relative humidity
(RH) of ≈ 25%. In order to explore the cooling effect and the
volume-shrinking effect of the acrylic layer on the actuation, the
actuation behavior of the IPAT-0 actuator was also investigated
under the same conditions.
2.2.1. Photothermal Actuation of IPAT Actuators under NIR
Light
It is well known that NIR light has a stronger photothermal
effect than short-wavelength light as well as relatively strong
penetration and is widely used in photoheating.[15] Therefore,
the actuation performance of IPAT actuators are first character-
ized under NIR irradiation (760−2600 nm). Unless otherwise
specified, the dimensions of the IPAT actuator investigated are
10 mm × 1 mm. Figure  2a and Figure S7 in the Supporting
Information show the recorded optical and infrared images,
indicating a fast and reversible actuation process and a small
temperature change. Since the bending of the IPAT actuator
under NIR illumination does not result in a circular arc struc-
ture, the maximum curvature (κ) of the actuator under NIR
illumination is used to evaluate the actuation performance in
the following.[16] Also the response time (t), temperature change
(ΔT), and speed (v  =  κ/t) to reach the maximum bending
are discussed. The IPAT-2 actuator reached a plateau curvature
of 7.6 cm−1 within 0.36 s, corresponding to a large bending
speed of 71.1 cm−1 s−1, upon exposure to 150 mW cm−2 NIR
illumination as the temperature increased from 25.0 to 34.9 °C,
and the actuator then returned to the initial state within
0.44 s (Figure 2b). It can be concluded that the bending cur-
vature increases with increasing temperature in this dynamic
process, and the bending curvature increase with temperature
change (Figure 2d). The NIR light having a light intensity of
100–300 mW cm−2 are good enough for photothermal heating
and are mostly used to initiate photothermal actuation,[11a] so we
investigated the actuation of IPAT-2 under 90–150 mW cm−2.
The bending curvature and corresponding temperature of the

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Figure 2. NIR-light actuation of IPAT-2 actuators. a) Photographs of an IPAT-2 actuator during an actuation cycle driven by NIR light
(150 mW cm−2). b) Time dependence of the bending curvature and temperature of an IPAT-2 actuator exposed to NIR light when the light
is switched on and off. The dotted line indicates the NIR light is switched off. c) Finite element analysis results for the effective stress
distribution associated with bending actuation for an IPAT-2 actuator. d) Experimental data and the classical beam theoretical analysis of
the bending curvature as a function of the temperature change for IPAT-2 and IPAT-0 actuators. The error bar indicates standard deviations
calculated by five parallel tests. e) Experimental data and the classical beam theoretical analysis of the bending curvature and the measured
temperature for an IPAT-2 actuator as a function of the NIR-light light intensity. The error bar indicates standard deviations calculated by five
parallel tests.

actuator are plotted as a function of time and light intensity in
Figure 2e, and the bending curvature and temperature change
increased linearly with light intensity.
Below we compared the performance of the IPAT actua-
tors with previously published actuators under NIR irradiation
(Table S1, Supporting Information). Compared with other NIR
photothermal bimorph actuators, the response time (0.36 s) of
our IPAT-2 actuator is comparable to some actuators such as
graphene oxide (GO)/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) (0.3 s),[17]
rGO/GO actuator (0.73 s),[18] and CNT/polyethylene actuator
(1.43 s),[11b] and longer than the VO2/metallic CNT (2.4 ms),[19a]
and W-VO2-CNT (29 ms) actuators.[19c] The temperature
change to reach the maximum bending (+9.9  °C) is one of
the lowest temperature change, such as CNT-paper/biaxially
oriented polypropylene (BOPP) actuator (37.7 °C),[20] and
GO-polydopamine/rGO actuator (17 °C).[16] The actuation
curvature (7.6 cm−1) and speed (71.1 cm−1 s−1) are also at the
same level of the NIR-responsive actuators based on polymer
or polymer composites.[11b,17,21] The fast forwarding (0.36 s) and
reversing (0.44 s) bending actuation indicates high symmetrical
reversibility comparable to other best symmetrical bimorph
actuators. This symmetrical switching-on and switching-off
time is preferred when the actuator is used as remote smart
control, soft robotics, grippers, and electrical switches.

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Figure 3.  White light and blue light actuation of IPAT-2 actuators. a,b) Photographs of an IPAT-2 actuator during an actuation cycle driven by white
light and blue light (30 mW cm−2). c) Repeatable actuation of an IPAT-2 actuator for 10 000 cycles (The inset is time dependence of the bending
angle and temperature of an IPAT-2 actuator exposed to white light when the light is switched on and off, and the arrow indicates the light was
switched off ). d) Time dependence of the bending angle and temperature of an IPAT-2 actuator exposed to blue light when the light is switched
on and off. e) Bending angle of an IPAT-2 actuator as a function of actuation frequency under white light and blue light illumination (The inset
is the schematic illustration of the bending angle for the IPAT-2 actuator). f ) Comparison of the actuation temperature difference and response
time of an IPAT-2 actuator under irradiation with NIR light and visible light with results from the literature. The literatures with available and
accurate values of response time and temperature change and the response time less than 10 s were selected. Reproduced with permission.[5a]
Copyright 2017, Wiley-VCH. Reproduced with permission.[5e] Copyright 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry. Reproduced with permission.[7]
Copyright 2015, Wiley-VCH. Reproduced with permission.[11a] Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH. Reproduced with permission.[11b] Copyright 2018,
American Chemical Society. Reproduced with permission[13a] Copyright 2014, Nature. Reproduced with permission.[16] Copyright 2015, Science.
Reproduced with permission.[19a] Copyright 2017, Science. Reproduced with permission.[19b] Copyright 2015, American Chemical Society.
Reproduced with permission.[19c] Copyright 2017, American Chemical Society. Reproduced with permission.[20] Copyright 2018, Royal Society of
Chemistry. Reproduced with permission.[25a] Copyright 2016, American Chemical Society. Reproduced with permission.[25b] Copyright 2018, Royal
Society of Chemistry.

As the bending curvature and bending speed depend on com-
plicated parameters of the actuators, including the mechanical
properties, dimensions, temperature change, etc., it is difficult
to make absolute comparisons with literatures by normalizing
these values. We here focus on the actuation performance by
considering temperature change using temperature-change-
normalized curvature (κΔT  =  κ/ΔT) and speed (vΔT  =  v/ΔT),
obtaining values of 0.76 cm−1  °C−1 and 7.18 cm−1 s−1  °C−1,
respectively. These values are at the same level of photothermal
bimorph actuators based on polymer or polymer composites
under NIR irradiation (Figure 3f and Table S1, Supporting Info
rmation).[5e,11a,b,16,20]
Role of the Cooling Layer on Actuation: In Section 2.1, we
found that the acrylic layer had a cooling effect and exhibited
volume shrinking via water evaporation under heating. It is
hypothesized that this water-evaporation-induced cooling may
decrease the temperature change during actuation and the
volume shrinking may synergistically increase the bending
amplitude of the actuator. Below we investigated the bending

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curvature, temperature change, and long-term stability of the
trilayered actuator with those of the equivalent bilayered actu-
ator without a cooling layer, in order to investigate the function
of the acrylic layer.
The temperature change and bending curvature of the IPAT-2
actuator are +9.9 °C and 7.6 cm−1 under 150 mW cm−2 NIR
irradiation, which is 0.5 and 1.43 times as those of the IPAT-0
actuator, respectively (Figure 2b). This verifies the cooling effect
and synergistic volume shrinking effect of the acrylic layer. The
relatively low actuation temperature change resulting from the
acrylic layer also improves the cycling stability of the IPAT-2
actuator. The IPAT-2 actuator exhibited excellent and steady cur-
vature performance over 100 cycles under 150 mW cm−2 NIR
light, whereas the IPAT-0 actuator showed obvious degrada-
tion in its curvature after only ≈50 actuation cycles (Figure S8,
Supporting Information).
To further investigate the influence of the acrylic layer for
the IPAT actuators. We measured the actuation performance of
the IPAT-2 and IPAT-0 actuators under different RH (Figure S9,
Supporting Information). It can be observed that varying
humidity conditions have little effect on the actuation perfor-
mance (temperature difference, speed, and amplitude) of the
IPAT-0 actuator. For the IPAT-2 actuator, the curvature and actu-
ation speed decreased slightly accompanied by a small increase
of temperature change with increase in humidity. This may be
due to the fact that water evaporation from the IPAT-2 actuator
became slow at relatively high RH, and resulted in the decrease
in volume shrinkage.
Theoretical Analysis: The bending actuation of an IPAT-0
actuator is induced by the mismatch in CTE between the
different layers upon heating due to light irradiation, while
the thermal contraction of the acrylic layer due to the water
loss upon heating synergistically enhances the actuation per-
formance of the IPAT-2 film. In order to quantitatively study
the mechanism of volume shrinking of the acrylic layer on the
bending actuation, we carried out theoretical analysis on trilay-
ered and bilayered actuators.
First, a transient heat transfer analysis was conducted to
quantify the temperature change of the IPAT actuator as a
function of the light intensity and exposure time (Note S1
and Table S2, Supporting Information). Figure S10 in the
Supporting Information shows that the theoretical calculations
are almost consistent with the experimental measurement for
IPAT-2 and IPAT-0 films when they are fixed and free to bend.
Thus, the established analytical formulation is suitable for
calculating the thermal response of the IPAT actuators. Both the
theoretical and numerical solutions show good agreement with
the experimental data (Figure 2c and Figures S11−S15 in the
Supporting Information). Then a thermomechanical analysis
of bending curvature as a function of temperature change
for IPAT-2 and IPAT-0 actuators was conducted using the
classical beam theory (Figure 2d and Note S2, Supporting
Information).[22,23] By combining the above photothermal and
thermal-mechanical analysis by the classical beam theory, the
effect of light intensity on the maximum curvature of the IPAT-2
actuator was investigated. The calculated results agree well with
the experimental observations, and the maximum curvature is
almost linearly proportional to the light intensity (Figure 2e).
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The thickness of the acrylic layer has a great influence on the
actuation performance. When the thickness of the acrylic layer
is 7 µm, the bending curvature is about 8.2 cm−1. However,
too thick acrylic layer (15 µm) deteriorates the bending ampli-
tude possibly due to the decrease in actuation temperature
change, which is consistent with the theoretical simulations
(Figure S16, Supporting Information).
2.2.2. White-Light and Blue-Light Photothermal Actuation
The IPAT-2 actuator can also generate bending actuation in the
sunlight without any optical focusing system. To better inves-
tigate sunlight-induced actuation of the actuator, white light
here is used for simulated sunlight. Moreover, actuation under
high-energy short-wave light, such as blue light, is investigated,
which is often applied for lighting and precise control due to
strong focusing.[24] By considering the absorption over a wide
spectrum for the ink layer in the IPAT film, we studied the
actuation performance of IPAT actuators under white and blue
light, respectively.
The IPAT-2 actuator bent under white light (400−600 nm)
with a more tightly focused illumination spot (6.0 mm)
(Figure 3a). It reaches a maximum bending angle of 142° within
0.20 s at a bending speed of 725°s−1 under 30 mW cm−2
(0.3 sun) white-light irradiation, with temperature change of
+4.9  °C (Figure 3c). The actuation performance is superior to
the IPAT-0 actuator (Figure S17, Supporting Information). The
response time (0.20 s), and temperature-change-normalized
bending angle (29 °C−1) and speed (148° s−1  °C−1) are at the
same level of high performance, fast white-light driven actua-
tors based on polymer or polymer composites (in Table S3,
Supporting Information).[5a,7,13a,25] However, the response time
is larger than the reported VO2/metallic CNT (2.0 ms)[19a] and
VO2/CNT (3.3 ms).[19b] An interesting oscillation behavior
is observed under white light illumination due to the self-
shadowing effect of the IPAT-2 film (inset of Figure 3c).[26] A
cycling test showed that no obvious degradation was observed
for 10 000 cycles under 30 mW cm−2 white-light (Figure 3c).
Larger bending angle can be obtained by impinging the position
further from the free end (Figure S18, Supporting Information)
and by increasing the light intensity (Figure S19, Supporting
Information). Fast periodic actuation can be generated under
square-wave light illumination and the bending angle decreased
with increasing actuation frequency (Figure 3e).
Although few successful reports about photothermal
actuation under blue light have been published,[27] there
have no efforts to decrease the temperature change used for
actuation. We now present the investigation of photothermal
actuation of IPAT-2 under blue-light illumination (Figure 3b).
The actuation behavior of an IPAT-2 actuator was studied
under 30 mW cm−2 blue-light illumination at a wavelength of
450 nm and spot size of 4.0 mm. The IPAT-2 actuator achieved
a maximum bending angle of 124° within 0.24 s at a bending
speed of 625° s−1, with a temperature change of 12.8 °C (from
25.0 to 37.8 °C) (Figure 3d). The bending angle decreased with
increasing the actuation frequency (Figure 3e) and increased
with increasing blue-light intensity (Figure S20, Supporting
Information). To elucidate the generality of acrylic layer on the
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actuation performance, the actuation behavior of the IPAT-2
actuators driven by blue light are also compared with IPAT-0, as
shown in Figure S21 in the Supporting Information. Similar
to the white light actuation, the IPAT-2 actuator showed larger
bending angle, faster actuation speed, and smaller temperature
increment than those of the IPAT-0 actuator under white and
blue light. The response time and temperature change of the
IPAT-2 actuator under white and blue light are at the same level
of high performance, fast photothermal actuators based on
polymer or polymer composites shown in Figure 3f.
2.2.3. Helically Coiled IPAT Actuators
In plants, there are many helically coiled movements, including
the helical motion of tendrils and twisting of wood cells.[28]
Helical actuators have been created by shaping the film to a
helical coil and exhibit promising applications in robots and
artificial muscles.[29] It is critical to further enhance the actua-
tion performance of helical actuators for practical applications,
such as high rotation angle, fast response, and symmetrical
reversibility. By considering the fast actuation of IPAT-2 actuator
at a relatively low temperature change, here we prepared IPAT-
based helical actuators (Figure S22, Supporting Information)
and studied their rotation angle and speed as well as the tem-
perature change as a function of time under NIR illumination.
The IPAT-2 helical actuator with 1 mm coil diameter reached
a plateau of 288° cm−1 within 0.36 s with a temperature change
of 17 °C when 150 mW cm−2 NIR light was switched on and
returned to the initial state within 0.72 s when the NIR light
was switched off (Figure S23, Supporting Information). Our
IPAT-2 actuator shows faster response compared to other
helically coiled actuators.[24,30] The maximum rotation speed
was ≈150 r.p.m., and there was no significant degradation after
100 cycles (Figure S24, Supporting Information). The rotation
angle increased with a smaller coil diameter and a higher light
intensity (Figures S25 and S26, Supporting Information). As a
comparison, the IPAT-0 coil exhibited a smaller rotation angle
(280° cm−1) and a slower response time (0.84 s) compared to
the IPAT-2 actuator, indicating the volume shrinking of the
acrylic layer (Figure S27, Supporting Information).
2.2.4. Light-Induced Actuating Stress Generation
The light-induced actuating stress of the IPAT-2 and IPAT-0
actuators under NIR illumination with different light inten-
sities was measured by using an Instron mechanical tester
(Figure S28, Supporting Information). Both ends of the film
(50 mm in length and 5 mm in width) were fastened to the
machine in uniaxial testing mode, and ≈0.5 N force was applied
to keep it taut. The NIR illumination time is about ≈0.2 s. The
actuating stress induced in the actuator mainly originated from
the expansion of the ink layer. It can be observed that the actu-
ating stress increased with increase of power density, which
might be attributed to the large expansion of the ink layer. The
actuating stress of the IPAT-2 actuator is higher than that of
IPAT-0 actuator, which should be ascribed to the contribution
from the acrylic layer. The acrylic layer can generate volume
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shrinking induced by water evaporation under NIR irradiation
and thus increased actuation amplitude of the IPAT-2 film.
2.3. Applications of IPAT Actuators
2.3.1. Photothermal Frequency Switch
Different from the simple on/off switch, frequency switch can
be used to switch on or off the circuit in the particular fre-
quency, which shows potential applications in communication
system. We demonstrate here a photothermal actuator-based
frequency switch by taking advantage of the fast response speed
of the actuator.
A diffuse-reflective photoelectric-switch sensor, which is
normally in the open state and generally used to control the
on/off status of the electrical circuit, is adopted to construct
the frequency switch. An IPAT-2 film was mounted on the
side of the sensor, and it would cover the sensing part of the
sensor with NIR light irradiating on the film (Figure S29,
Supporting Information). The light emitted by the transmitter
of the photoelectric sensor was then reflected by the IPAT-2
actuator and received by the photoelectric sensor. In this way,
a light-emitting diode (LED) could be lit on within 0.26 s and
lit off within 0.14 s with NIR switched on and off, respec-
tively (Movie S1, Supporting Information). This switch can be
operated at a frequency up to 3 Hz by periodically switching on
and off the NIR light. It may be applied for sending frequency
signals for transmission, communication, and control by using
light. As currently the frequency is still low compared to other
approaches, further improving the frequency is possible by
means of downsizing the actuator to micrometer to nanometer
scale and increasing the modulus of the film.
2.3.2. Mechanical Gripper
Mechanical grippers are widely used in robotic systems for
grasping and lifting objects using mechanically actuated fin-
gers, and flexible actuators are preferred to enable such fingers
to handle objects of different shapes. The currently reported
mechanical grippers are limited by the small weight-lifting ratio
due to the limited interaction force between the fingers and the
object as well as the slow response time. Our IPAT-2 actuator
is a good candidate for use in a mechanical gripper due to the
large bending amplitude and fast response time under light
irradiation and the fact that the acrylic layer of the IPAT-2 film
can provide a strong adhesive force when holding an object.
The strong mechanical properties of the IPAT-2 actuator played
a certain role in holding the load without broken when it was
gripped on the film via the acrylic layer. Here, we demonstrated
an IPAT-based mechanical gripper that can grasp objects made
of different materials, including metal balls and polymer foams,
under NIR irradiation (Figure 4a).
An IPAT-based gripper consisting of two IPAT-2 actuators
(0.17 mg for the two actuators) was shown to be able to grasp
and lift a copper ball of 0.3642 g within 0.37 s under NIR irra-
diation of 150 mW cm−2 and quickly released it within 0.13 s
by switching off the light (Figure 4b). This corresponds to a
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com www.afm-journal.de

Figure 4.  Mechanical gripper made from the IPAT-2 actuators used to grasp and release an object under NIR irradiation. a) Schematic illustration and
b,c) photographs of the gripper for grabbing a copper ball and a polymer foam. d) Comparison of weight-lifting ratio and response time of actuators.
WS2/SA: Reproduced with permission.[8] Copyright 2017, Wiley-VCH. GO-PDA-rGO: Reproduced with permission.[16] Copyright 2015, Science. CNT-paper/
BOPP: Reproduced with permission.[20] Copyright 2018, Royal Society of Chemistry. sG/PDMS: Reproduced with permission.[31a] Copyright 2014, Royal
Society of Chemistry. PVDF/single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT): Reproduced with permission.[31b] Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH. Pentaerythritol
ethoxylate (PEE)/polypyrrole (PPy): Reproduced with permission.[31c] Copyright 2013, Science. Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)/phenol-formaldehyde (PF):
Reproduced with permission.[31d] Copyright 2014, Wiley-VCH. poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)/PPy: Reproduced with permission.[31e] Copyright 2015,
Wiley-VCH. SA/PNIPAM: Reproduced with permission.[31f ] Copyright 2015, American Chemical Society.

weight-lifting ratio of 2142 (m/m0, where m0 is the mass of the
IPAT actuators and m is the mass of the lifted object). This
ratio is higher than the previous record weight-lifting ratio of
500 achieved by a sodium alginate/WS2 actuator.[8] The response
time is also shorter than the record response time (2 s) offered
by a graphene sponge/PDMS actuator (Figure 4d).[31] The IPAT-
based gripper could also be made to grasp and release a polymer
foam by using NIR light (Figure 4c and Movie S2, Supporting
Information). To investigate the effect of the mechanical prop-
erties of the actuator film to the gripper performance, we
prepared a mechanical gripper using IPAT-0 actuators, which
can pick up the polymer foam under irradiation of NIR light.
This indicates that the mechanical properties of the actuator
also play an important role for mechanical grippers, as reported
by Li’s group.[8] With its outstanding weight-lifting ratio, fast
response, remote controllability, and the ability to manipulate
different materials, this smart gripper could be used in diverse
applications in robotic systems. For practical applications,
the selectivity and adhesion of the acrylic layer to different mate-
rials need to be tailored and investigated. Based on the reported
fast response actuator, such as VO2/CNT (3.3 ms)[19b] and
VO2/metallic CNT (2 ms),[19a] a mechanical gripper with fast
response speed would be developed. Future work on improving
the properties of the mechanical gripper would be increasing
the mechanical properties of the actuator in holding the object,
exploring new interaction force between the fingers and the
object such as magnetism, and increasing the response speed.
2.3.3. Soft Crawling Robot
Soft robots that can harvest light are preferred because they can
be controlled remotely and enable miniaturization by elimi-
nating the need for external batteries. A light-driven bimorph
actuator is a good candidate for such a robot because it can
mimic locomotion as found in nature. However, the relatively
low speed of such actuators has limited the development of
such crawling robots. Considering that our IPAT-2 actua-
tors provide a fast bending speed under a low light intensity,
we reasoned that it should be possible to develop a crawling
robot based on IPAT-2 actuator that can crawl forward on a flat
substrate driven by white light.
A bow-shaped IPAT-2 actuator was prepared by attaching ten
layers of forest-drawn, super-aligned carbon nanotube (SACNT)
sheets on the adhesive layer of an IPAT-2 film (7 mm × 2 cm)
for reducing the adhesion.[32] When the front leg of the bow-
shaped IPAT actuator was illuminated (30 mW cm−2), the robot
became almost flat, the frictional force on the front leg (F2)
diminished, and the front leg moved forward (Figure 5a). Upon
removal of the light, the IPAT-2 actuator bent and recovered its

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Figure 5.  Demonstration of applications of an IPAT actuator as a soft walking robot and a light mill. a) Schematic illustration of the force analysis
during the light-driven actuation of a locomotive bimorph actuator. b) Photographs showing a walking robot crawling forward on a flat substrate with
white light sequentially switched on and off. The red dashed lines represent the starting position of the left edge of the robot, and the yellow and blue
dashed lines represent the final position of the left edge of the robot. c,d) Schematic illustration of a light mill driven by a wing-flapping mechanism.
e) The relationship between the actuator shape and the maximum rotational speed of the light-driven mill under NIR irradiation.

original shape. The front leg touched the surface at an angle
closer to perpendicular, so that the “foot” was relatively flat on
the surface. In contrast, the rear leg lay at a more acute angle,
reducing the surface contact of the rear “foot” relative to the front
one. Thus, the frictional force on the front leg (F2′) was larger
than that on the rear leg (F1′), and the rear leg moved forward
(Movie S3, Supporting Information). By sequentially switching
on and off the white light at a frequency of ≈0.4 Hz, the crawling
robot could be driven to move forward at an average speed of
≈ 26 mm s−1 (Figure 5b), which is ≈1.6 times the current record
value of 16 mm s−1 reported for an rGO-CNT/PDMS crawler-type
robot driven by light,[7] and other thermally induced crawling
robots.[33] However, the speed is lower than the soft robots based
on a rolling mechanism such as polycarbonate (PC)/CNTs motor
(60 mm s−1)[13a] and polydopamine modified reduced graphene
oxide-carbon nanotube layer/polyvinylidene fluoride (PDG-CNT/
PVDF (100 mm s−1).[34] This robot can continuously cover a dis-
tance of up to 5 cm in our experiment. This soft robot may find
applications for crawling to a specific place for searching and
take actions by combining with other modules such as sensors,
antenna, and other devices. Future work may focus on improving
the capacities such as carrying load and multifunctionality.
2.3.4. Light-Driven Mill Based on a Wing-Flapping IPAT Actuator
A mill is a device that converts external energy including
wind, water, and light energy into rotational energy by means
of blades.[9] With the only successful trial for light mill using
liquid crystal polymers, the investigation about the light mill is
largely unexplored. However, due to the complicated synthesis
and high cost, it will be highly favored that the blade can be
made by general polymer materials. The rapid motion of the
blades plays a vital role in obtaining the continuous rotatory
motion of the mill, which might be related to the low energy
density of light compared to the weight of the mill, inefficient
transformation of light-to-kinetic energy, and the air resistance.
Inspired by the fast response and large bending amplitude of
the IPAT-2 film under small temperature change, we demon-
strated a light mill by means of light-induced aerodynamic
propulsion based on a wing-flapping mechanism (Figure 5c,d).
Upon irradiation with periodic pulses of NIR light, the IPAT
actuators sequentially bent and unbent, thereby generating fast
air flow under the actuators and providing thrust to drive the
rotation of the light mill (Movie S4, Supporting Information).
Figure 5e shows the relationship between the shape of the
IPAT-2 actuators and the maximum rotational speed of the light
mill. The results indicate that square-shaped IPAT-2 actuators
generated the fastest rotational speed of the light mill among
all of the tested actuator shapes, including circles, triangles,
rectangles, and hexagons. This finding mimics the character-
istics of flying birds, such as peregrine falcons and ducks,
who typically use short wings to generate overall fast speed.
A light-driven mill with a cantilever length of 3.0 cm and
square-shaped IPAT-2 actuators could generate an average
rotational speed of 19 r.p.m. under periodic pulses of
150 mW cm−2 NIR light with on and off time of 0.30 and 0.28 s,
respectively, and the corresponding specific work capacity was
7.5  × 10−3 J kg−1. The flapping frequency can reach 0.2 Hz,
which is lower than the liquid crystal network actuator (1 Hz).[9]
The relatively low rotational speed might be related to the large
weight ratio of actuator to the whole device (1:13) compared

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www.advancedsciencenews.com
to the literature (1:1), which may be improved by increase the
weight fraction of the actuators in the future investigations.
This rotational motion can sustain as long as the light pulse
is provided during our experimental time period. This light-
induced aerodynamic propulsion design based on a wing-
flapping mechanism may also be used in driving motors, or
even used in morphing aircraft and other automated systems,
by suitable aerodynamic design.
3. Conclusion
In conclusion, we designed an innovative photothermal trilay-
ered bimorph actuator with an in-built layer for cooling and syn-
ergistic volume shrinking via water evaporation upon heating.
We achieved shorter response time, larger actuation amplitude,
and faster actuation speed at a smaller temperature change,
compared to the equivalent bilayered actuator without the
cooling layer, under broad spectrum including NIR, white, and
blue light. We successfully showed the demonstration of a light
mill via a wing-flapping mechanism and a photothermal fre-
quency switch as well as a fast-soft robot and a strong mechan-
ical gripper. On the basis of our approach, we recommend the
application of this trilayered concept in various actuator-related
devices from smart control to artificial intelligence. As the cur-
rent design uses thin polymer film for fast heat transfer and
thus shows weak mechanical properties, future work may be
carried out to improve the mechanical strength by use of inor-
ganic materials, such as metals, semiconductors, or composites.
4. Experimental Section
Preparation of IPAT and Helically Coiled Actuators: The IPAT-0 actuator
was fabricated by coating the commercially available shading ink (TJ-1830,
Tengjing Electronic Materials Co. Ltd, Shenzhen, China.) on the PET film
(Jiufanghe Co. Ltd, China, 1.6 µm) to form an ink layer (1.2 µm) by spin
coating (3000 r min−1). The ink is composed of carbon black (3−5%),
polyurethane (30%) in the mixture solvents of ethyl acetate and acetone
(20%/80%) provided by the supplier. In detail, first the PET film was
attached on the glass side by double-side tape. A certain amount of ink
slurry was dropped on the PET film to form a uniform ink layer by spin
coating and then an IPAT-0 film was obtained by drying the film naturally.
Similarly, the IPAT-x (x > 0) actuator was prepared by coating commercially
available waterborne acrylic adhesive (Hexiang Co. Ltd, China) on the PET
side of the IPAT-0 film to form an acrylic layer with different thickness by
spin coating (Figure S1, Supporting Information), the thickness can be
controlled by using different spin coating speed. Helically coiled actuators
were prepared by wrapping the IPAT films having 5 cm length and 2 mm
width, with the ink layer inside around steel rods of different diameters
(1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 6.0 mm) with a helical angle of +45° (left handedness)
or −45° (right handedness). Both ends of the film were fixed by polyimide
tape and then annealed in an oven at 120 °C for 4 h to set the shape.
Fabrication of the Frequency Switch, Smart gripper, Walking Robot, and
Light Mill: The frequency switch was fabricated by taping the IPAT-2
film (10 mm long and 1 mm wide) vertically on the side of the diffuse-
reflective photoelectric sensor (model M6, Xiangming Inc, China) to
control an LED light. The light emitted from the transmitter was reflected
and received by the photoelectric sensor, and the electrical circuit was
connected. The frequency control of the LED was achieved by changing
the actuation frequency of the IPAT-2 actuator under NIR irradiation.
A smart gripper was produced by attaching two identical IPAT-2 films
(12 mm long and 2 mm wide) to the opposite sides of the bottom end
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of a Teflon rod (4.0 mm diameter and 35 mm long) via the adhesive
force of the acrylic layer to the Teflon rod. The lengthwise direction of the
IPAT-2 films were placed parallel to the diameter direction of the Teflon
rod, and part of the length (2 mm) of each IPAT-2 film was attached to
the Teflon rod. To achieve a suitable adhesion force for capturing and
releasing different objects, talcum powder (325 mesh) was casted on the
acrylic layer.
The bow-shaped IPAT-2 robot was designed by attaching ten layers
of forest-drawn SACNT sheets on its acrylic side of the film (7 mm
long and 2 mm wide) to reduce its adhesion, and wrapped around a
4 mm diameter stainless-steel rod with the SACNT side on the outside,
and then annealed at 100 °C for 1 h to set the shape.
The light mill was composed of two-part structure, with the top part
having six arms connected to a small hemispherical glass cap, which
was placed on top of a vertically oriented needle. An IPAT-2 film was
mounted at the end of each individual arm.
Characterizations: The thickness of the individual layer of the IPAT film
was measured from cross-sectional images acquired using a scanning
electron microscope (ZEISS, MERLIN Compact, Germany). The
optical absorption spectrum was obtained by UV/vis/IR spectrometer
(PerkinEelmer, Lambda 950). FTIR spectroscopy of the acrylic layer
was performed on a spectrometer (Bruker, TENSOR 37, Germany).
The CTE was measured using a dilatometer (NETZSCH, DIL 402SE,
Germany). The mechanical properties of the film were obtained using
an Instron mechanical tester (Model 3365, China). An IR camera (FLIR
T440, American) was used to measure the temperature of the IPAT-2
and IPAT-0 actuators. The bending amplitude and response time of the
IPAT-2 and IPAT-0 actuators were measured from digital images (Adobe
Preclude CC 2015) captured by a video camera (Nikon, D5300, Japan).
The light intensity was measured using a solar power meter (LH-122,
China) and an IR power meter (LH-129, China). Ambient temperature
and RH were measured using a hygrometer (DT-615, China).
Supporting Information
Supporting Information is available from the Wiley Online Library or
from the author.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China2017YFB0307000, the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (grants U1533122 and 51773094), the
Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (Grant No. 18JCZDJC36800),
the Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of Tianjin
(Grant No. 18JCJQJC46600), the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities63171219, the Science and Technology
Support Program of ChangzhouCZ20170007, State Key Laboratory
for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua
UniversityLK1704, and Eugene McDermott Graduate Fellows Program.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords
bending actuation, light mills, photothermal, soft robots, torsional actuation
Received: December 18, 2018
Revised: March 5, 2019
Published online:
© 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
www.advancedsciencenews.com
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