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Bioinspired Soft Robot with Incorporated Microelectrodes

Bioinspired Soft Robot with Incorporated Microelectrodes

Published on: February 28, 2020

Enhancing soft robots with chemical shielding for harsh corrosive liquid environments.

Haitao Qing¹, Sravanthi Vallabhuneni¹, Yinding Chi¹

¹Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. jyin8@ncsu.edu.

Materials Horizons

|December 17, 2025

Summary

Researchers developed a spray-coated superomniphobic skin to protect soft robots from corrosive liquids. This chemical shielding enables robust underwater operation for environmental monitoring and other applications.

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Robotics
Surface Chemistry

Background:

Soft robots are ideal for underwater tasks but degrade in corrosive liquids.
Elastomeric components are vulnerable to acids, bases, and solvents.

Purpose of the Study:

To create a universal chemical shielding strategy for elastomer-based soft robots.
To enhance the durability and operational range of soft robots in harsh chemical environments.

Main Methods:

Spray-coating elastomer-based soft robots with a superomniphobic skin using fluorinated silica nanoparticles.
Testing the protective coating against various corrosive liquids (toluene, sulfuric acid, chloroform).
Evaluating the performance of coated soft robots (actuators) under different actuation methods (pneumatic, light, magnetic).

Main Results:

The superomniphobic coating demonstrated high contact angles (>150°) and low roll-off angles (<10°), preventing liquid wetting.
Coated soft robots showed robust performance (swimming, crawling, manipulation) without degradation in harsh chemical environments.
Uncoated soft robots experienced immediate and irreversible damage when exposed to the same corrosive conditions.

Conclusions:

A scalable approach for creating chemically resilient soft robots was established.
The superomniphobic shielding strategy significantly enhances soft robot durability in corrosive liquids.
This innovation enables new possibilities for soft robot deployment in challenging environments like biomedicine, chemical inspection, and pollution remediation.