Synthesis of deformable hydrogel composites based on Janus bilayer multi-walled carbon nanotubes/host-guest complex structure

Abstract Stimuli-responsive hydrogel actuators, which can swell and shrink reversibly, have attracted great attention. In this paper, a bilayer hydrogel actuator based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)/host-guest polymer composites was prepared. The surface compatibility of MWCNTs was improved by the oxidization process and vinyl functionalization. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman analysis revealed that the modifications conferred the hydrophilic groups and disorder structures to MWCNTs, which can enhance the hydrophilicity of poly(acrylamide) matrix. The host and guest hydrogels bilayer structured actuator shows a bending movement in water, providing a new route to design and fabricate high performance hydrogel based actuators.