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Advanced sensation and actuation abilities of various living organisms in nature have inspired researchers to design bioinspired self‐sensing soft actuators. However, the majority of conventional soft actuators primarily possess actuation capabilities while lacking a real‐time sensing signal feedback. Here, a promising strategy is reported to develop highly stretchable and conductive hydrogels for bioinspired self‐sensing soft actuators, which integrate actuation and strain‐sensing functions into a single materials system. The conductive hydrogels are designed and fabricated by in situ copolymerization of amino‐functionalized MXene‐encapsulated liquid metal nanodroplets (LM@A‐MXene) and poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels with controllable activated nanogels as nano‐cross‐linkers. The resulting hydrogel presents a compacted conducting network and highly porous microstructure, giving rise to robust integration of high conductivity, excellent strain sensitivity, broad stretchability, high stability, and fast response speed. Interestingly, the gradient network structure, formed by self‐precipitation of LM@A‐MXene, endows the hydrogel with shape‐programmable actuation, light‐driven remote control, and self‐sensing function. As a proof‐of‐concept application, the soft gripper based on the self‐sensing hydrogel actuators is developed, which can not only grasp, lift, and release objects, but also perceive every movement state by monitoring resistance changes. The proposed self‐sensing soft actuator can offer new insights for developing smart soft robotics and other artificial intelligent devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth of high performance electronics, more consideration should be given to the safety issues associated with thermal runaway. Previous strategies have often been limited by shutdown efficiency and shutdown temperature. Here, we present a MXene supercapacitor loaded with a smart thermally responsive electrolyte to cope with thermal runaway at high temperatures. At room temperature, the ions in the electrolyte containing the poly (N‐isopropylacrylamide‐co‐glycidyl methacrylate) (PNGM) can migrate freely and the devices can operate normally. The smart electrolyte system forms a hydrophobic network that effectively inhibits ion migration to achieve thermal shutdown at high temperatures. The electrolyte system exhibits different electrochemical properties during heating up, reaching nearly 90 % capacity suppression at 85 °C. The proposed smart electrolyte system provides a promising solution to the thermal safety suitable for current electronic devices by achieving a proactive protection strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we report near‐infrared (NIR) light‐driven shape‐morphing of programmable MXene‐containing anisotropic hydrogel actuators that are fabricated through in situ free‐radical copolymerization of a judiciously designed MXene nanomonomer with thermosensitive hydrogel network. A low electric field (few V mm−1) was found to enable a spatial distribution of MXene nanosheets and hence introduce anisotropy into the hydrogel network. Programmable anisotropic hydrogel actuators were developed by controlling ITO electrode pattern, direct‐current (DC) electric field direction and mask‐assisted photopolymerization. As a proof‐of‐concept, we demonstrate NIR light‐driven shape morphing of the MXene‐containing anisotropic hydrogel into various shapes and devise a four‐arm soft gripper that can perform distinct photomechanical functions such as grasping, lifting/lowering down and releasing an object upon sequential NIR light exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]