The highly stable air-working electro-active ionic polymer actuator based on nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel flexible electrode.

Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped graphene aerogels (3D N-GAs) were prepared by ultrasonic stripping, hydrothermal reduction and freeze drying. Those N-GAs exhibited high-specific surface area, high nitrogen doping amount, and 3D porous network structure. Soft electro-active ionic polymer actuators were developed for the first time using this 3D N-GA soft electrode. The developed soft actuator exhibited large peak-to-peak displacement of 11.8 mm (3 V and 0.1 Hz) and high air working durability for 93.8% after 6 h cycles. These successful demonstrations elucidated the wide potential of 3D N-GA soft actuators for the next-generation soft robotic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]