Fabrication of Light-Triggered Soft Artificial Muscles via a Mixed-Matrix Membrane Strategy

Artificial muscles triggered by light are of great importance, especially for the development of non-contact and remotely controlled materials. Common materials for synthesis of photoinduced artificial muscles typically rely on polymer-based photomechanical materials. Herein, we are able to prepare artificial muscles using a mixed-matrix membrane strategy to incorporate photomechanical molecular crystals with connective polymers (e.g. PVDF). The formed hybrid materials inherit not only the advantages of the photomechanical crystals, including faster light response, higher Young's modulus and ordered structure, but also the elastomer properties from polymers. This new type of artificial muscles demonstrates various muscle movements, including lifting objects, grasping objects, crawling and swimming, triggered by light irradiation. These results open a new direction to prepare light-driven artificial muscles based on molecular crystals.