Abstract
Responsive materials1,2,3 have been used to generate structures with built-in complex geometries4,5,6, linear actuators7,8,9 and microswimmers10,11,12. These results suggest that complex, fully functional machines composed solely from shape-changing materials might be possible13. Nonetheless, to accomplish rotary motion in these materials still relies on the classical wheel and axle motifs. Here we explore geometric zero-energy modes to elicit rotary motion in elastic materials in the absence of a rigid wheel travelling around an axle. We show that prestrained polymer fibres closed into rings exhibit self-actuation and continuous motion when placed between two heat baths due to elastic deformations that arise from rotational-symmetry breaking around the rod's axis. Our findings illustrate a simple but robust model to create active motion in mechanically prestrained objects.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Micro Nano Mechanics at ICS for providing the DMTA facility and thank A. Dutta for useful comments. This work was supported in part by the ANR grant Integrations.
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A.B., A.S.-F., L.J., V.L.H., P.M. and I.M.K. performed the experiments and analysed data, I.M.K. conceived the work, F.Z. and I.M.K. developed the theory, designed the experiments and wrote the paper, and all the authors commented on the article.
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Supplementary Information
Supplementary Video Legends 1–7, Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figures 1–13 and Supplementary References
Supplementary Video 1
Toroidal fibre motors
Supplementary Video 2
Spiral fibre motor
Supplementary Video 3
Self-propulsion of fibres
Supplementary Video 4
Annealing nylon-6 motors
Supplementary Video 5
Fibre animation
Supplementary Video 6
Ring self-healing
Supplementary Video 7
Thin filament loop
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Baumann, A., Sánchez-Ferrer, A., Jacomine, L. et al. Motorizing fibres with geometric zero-energy modes. Nature Mater 17, 523–527 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0062-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0062-0
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