1. Peristaltic motion of tubular gel driven by acid-autocatalytic reaction.
- Author
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Mikanohara, Takashi, Maeda, Shingo, Hara, Yusuke, and Hashimoto, Shuji
- Subjects
- *
AUTOCATALYSIS , *COLLOID synthesis , *ACTUATORS , *ROBOT motion , *HYDROGEN-ion concentration , *BIOMIMETIC chemicals , *POLYMERIZATION - Abstract
A novel gel actuator exhibits a peristaltic motion is designed. We proposed a new approach of coupling an acid-autocatalytic reaction and a pH-responsive gel in order to cause contraction waves. The poly(AAm-co-AAc) microphase-separated tubular gel was synthesized, which can be inflowed reaction solution to its hollow. We focused on its kinetics and evaluated the characteristics of the microphase-separated gels. And we also demonstrated that the propagation of the contraction region occurs in the tubular gel. Our final goal is to develop a biomimetic chemical robot, which realizes a peristaltic locomotion by forming contraction waves like a snail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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