4D Printing of Magnetoactive Soft Materials for On-Demand Magnetic Actuation Transformation

Four-dimensional (4D) printed magnetoactive soft material (MASM) with a three-dimensional (3D) patterned magnetization profile possesses programmable shape transformation and controllable locomotion ability, showing promising applications in actuators and soft robotics. However, typical 4D printing strategies for MASM always introduced a printing magnetic field to orient the magneto-sensitive particles in polymers. Such strategies not only increase the cooperative control complexity of a 3D printer but may also induce local agglomeration of magneto-sensitive particles, which disturbs the magnetization of the already-printed structure. Herein, we proposed a novel 4D printing strategy that coupled the traditional 3D injection printing with the origami-based magnetization technique for easy fabrication of MASM objects with a 3D patterned magnetization profile. The 3D injection printing that can rapidly create complex 3D structures and the origami-based magnetization technique that can generate the spatial magnetization profile are combined for fabrication of 3D MASM objects to yield programmable transformation and controllable locomotion. A physics-based finite element model was also developed for the design guidance of origami-based magnetization and magnetic actuation transformation of MASM. We further demonstrated the diverse functions derived from the complex shape deformation of MASM-based robots, including a bionic human hand that played “rock-paper-scissors” game, a bionic butterfly that swung the wings on the flower, and a bionic turtle that crawled on the land and swam in the water.