(180bf) Development of Environmentally Responsive, Integrated Soft and Hard Materials

Novel materials based on various environmentally sensitive polymers hold multiple important applications in the field of polymer science. However, the functionality of these materials alone is often limited in comparison to other materials like Silicon; thus there is a need to integrate  soft and hard materials for the advancement of electrons.  Here we demonstrate the capability of integrating thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), or PNIPAAm, hydrogels with Silicon nanoribbons; enabling the stiff Silicon ribbons to become adaptive and drivable by the soft environmentally sensitive substrate. This integration provides a means of mechanical expansion and compression of the material due to changes in temperature. Furthermore, we investigate how advanced lithographic techniques can be used to generate patterned deformation on the above integrated structures. We also explore multilayer hybrid hydrogel structures formed by the integration of different types of polymers that have tunable curvatures under the influence of different stimuli. These results open new opportunities in developing stretchable and intelligent devices for multiple applications.