(235g) Thermoresponsiveness of Integrated Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Hydrogels with Ultra-Thin Silicon

Novel materials based on various environmentally sensitive polymers hold multiple important applications. However, the functionality of these materials alone is often limited, and thus the integration of these, with other functional materials like Silicon, is strongly desired. Here we demonstrate the capability of integrating thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogels with Silicon nanoribbons. This will enable the stiff silicon ribbons to become adaptive and drivable by the soft environmentally sensitive substrate, such as becoming mechanically stretched and compressed when inducing a temperature change. Furthermore, we investigate how advanced lithographic techniques can be used to generate patterned deformation on the above integrated structures. We also explore bi-layer hydrogel structures formed by the integration of different types of polymers of PNIPAAm. These structures have been determined to achieve tunable curvature under the influence of different stimuli. The integration of soft materials with traditional semiconductor materials could have interesting implications for the development of novel “smart” devices.