Photomechanical responses of carbon nanotube/polymer actuators

Recent studies have investigated the photomechanical properties of carbon nanotubes which can be utilized to construct optical actuators. In this paper we compare the photomechanical response from single-wall and multi-wall carbon nanotube/polymer systems in multilayer and nanocomposite actuator constructions. Incorporating polymers in the actuators, single-wall and multi-wall nanotubes show similar photomechanical responses, which are directly related to prestrain and nanotube alignments. Nanotube/polymer multilayered actuators exhibit comparable actuation strokes to the nanocomposite counterparts, while enabling easier sample construction, intact polymer and nanotube properties, and compatibility to CMOS/MEMS processes. The photomechanical responses can be well understood based on affine modelling of photomechanical responses.