Mechanical stimulation of cells with electroactive polymer-based soft actuators

Mechanical stimulation has an important effect on cell morphology and functions. Thus, it is of great research value to develop equipment and technologies for mechanical stimulation of cells. Electroactive polymers (EAPs) are a popular class of soft smart materials developed in the last 30 years. Co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The European physical journal. ST, Special topics Special topics, 2023-12, Vol.232 (16), p.2695-2708
Main Authors: Gu, Jing, Zhou, Zixing, Zhu, Zicai, Huang, Guoyou, Zhang, Zuoqi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuators
Atomic
Biomechanics
Biomedical materials
Biomimetics
Classical and Continuum Physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Electroactive polymers
Materials Science
Measurement Science and Instrumentation
Molecular
Molecular and Cellular Mechanics
Optical and Plasma Physics
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Review
Smart materials
Stimulation
Weight reduction
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Summary:Mechanical stimulation has an important effect on cell morphology and functions. Thus, it is of great research value to develop equipment and technologies for mechanical stimulation of cells. Electroactive polymers (EAPs) are a popular class of soft smart materials developed in the last 30 years. Compared to some traditional smart materials, EAPs have remarkable advantages such as high flexibility, large deformation, light weight, and fast response. Hence, EAP-based soft actuators have been widely used in biomedicine, biomimetic robots, flexible operating instruments, etc. Besides, they are also emerging in the field of biomechanics. In this review, we introduce the primary characteristics and operating mechanism of EAP-based actuators, and summarize a series of representative advances in EAP-based mechanical stimulation of cells and broadly discuss some other biomedical applications of EAP-based actuators.
ISSN:1951-6355
1951-6401
DOI:10.1140/epjs/s11734-023-00899-1