Mônica Jung de Andrade

University of Texas at Dallas | UTD · NanoTech Institute and Department of Chemistry

Getting the most out of muscles Materials that convert electrical, chemical, or thermal energy into a shape change can be used to form artificial muscles. Such materials include bimetallic strips or host-guest materials or coiled fibers or yarns (see the Perspective by Tawfick and Tang). Kanik et al. developed a polymer bimorph structure from an el...

In article number 1808995, Zunfeng Liu and co‐workers develop a tri‐layered bimorph actuator that shows a fast response, large bending amplitude, and small temperature change. Building on these advancements, a light‐mill based on the wing‐flapping mechanism upon light irradiation is designed.

Polymer matrix composites have high strengths in tension. However, their compressive strengths are much lower than their tensile strengths due to their weak fiber/matrix interfacial shear strengths. We recently developed a new approach to fabricate composites by overwrapping individual carbon fibers or fiber tows with a carbon nanotube sheet and su...

Fabrication of high quality stretchable conductors that show bulk structure, high electrical conductivity, and stable conductance under large deformations is crucial for wearable electronics and soft robots. A key difficulty here is to introduce buckled structure into the conductive phase of the bulk conductors and overcome the lateral crack proble...

Smart textiles that sense, interact, and adapt to environmental stimuli have provided exciting new opportunities for a variety of applications. However, current advances have largely remained at the research stage due to the high cost, complexity of manufacturing, and uncomfortableness of environment‐sensitive materials. In contrast, natural textil...

Photothermal bimorph actuators are widely used for smart devices, which are generally operated in a room temperature environment, therefore a low temperature difference for actuation without deteriorating the performance is preferred. The strategy for the actuator is assembling a broadband‐light absorption layer for volume expansion and an addition...

Inflatable conducting devices providing improved properties and functionalities are needed for diverse applications. However, the difficult part in making high-performance inflatable devices is the enabling of two-dimensional (2D) buckles with controlled structures on inflatable catheters. Here, we report the fabrication of highly inflatable device...

Yarn-type supercapacitors should have high energy density in small given spaces, and the one attempt among many is to comprise the electrodes asymmetrically. However, the low capacitance of conventional materials causes the widened operating voltage useless. In this study, we have utilized a novel material MXene with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to make...

Manipulation of terahertz (THz) wave plays an important role in THz imaging, communication, and detection. The difficulty in manipulating the THz wave includes single function, untunable, and inconvenient integration. Here, we present a mechanically tunable THz polarizer by using stretchable buckled carbon nanotube sheets on natural rubber substrat...

Flexible yarn- or fiber-based energy storing devices are attractive because of their small dimension, light weight, and suitability for integration into woven or textile application. Some Li-ion based yarn or fiber batteries were developed due to their performance advantages, realizing highly performing and practically safe wearable battery still r...

One-dimensional (1D) yarn or fiber-based supercapacitors that have small diameter, volume and high mechanical strength are needed due to the demands on power source for wearable electronics, micro-devices, and implantable medical devices. The composite sheath is fabricated on a commercially available CNT yarn substrate by alternating depositions of...

Asymmetric supercapacitors are receiving much research interests due to their wide operating potential window and high energy density. In this study, we report the fabrication of asymmetrically configured yarn based supercapacitor by using liquid-state biscrolling technology. High loading amounts of reduced graphene oxide anode guest (90.1 wt%) and...

Several works have been reported in powered hand orthosis in the last ten years for assistive or rehabilitative purposes. However, most of these approaches uses conventional actuators such as servo motors to power orthosis. In this work, we demonstrate the recently reported twisted and coiled polymeric (TCP) muscles to drive a compact, light, inexp...

Partial or total upper extremity impairment affects the quality of life of a vast number of people due to stroke, neuromuscular disease, or trauma. Many researchers have presented hand orthosis to address the needs of rehabilitation or assistance on upper extremity function. Most of the devices available commercially and in literature are powered b...

This paper focuses on design, fabrication and characterization of a biomimetic, compact, low-cost and lightweight 3D printed humanoid hand (TCP Hand) that is actuated by twisted and coiled polymeric (TCP) artificial muscles. The TCP muscles were recently introduced and provided unprecedented strain, mechanical work, and lifecycle (Haines et al 2014...

A high-speed incandescent tension annealing process (ITAP) is used to increase the modulus and strength of twist-spun carbon nanotube yarns by up to 12-fold and 2.6-fold, respectively, provide remarkable resistance to oxidation and powerful protonating acids, and freeze yarn untwist. This twist stability enables torsional artificial muscles motors...

This paper describes the design and experimental investigation of a self-reconfigurable icosahedral robot for locomotion. The robot consists of novel and modular tensegrity structures, which can potentially maneuver in unstructured environments while carrying a payload. Twisted and Coiled Polymer (TCP) muscles were utilized to actuate the tensegrit...

The fabrication and characterization of highly flexible textiles are reported. These textiles can harvest thermal energy from temperature gradients in the desirable through-thickness direction. The tiger yarns containing n- and p-type segments are woven to provide textiles containing n-p junctions. A high power output of up to 8.6 W m(-2) is obtain...

Transparent conductive indium-tin oxide (ITO) thin films, electrochemically intercalated with alkali (Li+, Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+), alkali earth (Mg+2, Ca+2), or complex NH\(_{4}^{+}\) ions, show tunable superconducting transitions with dome-shaped behavior of T c versus electron density around the maximum at ∼ 5 K. On field cooling, the transition into...

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology suggest that many of the current problems involving water quality can be solved or greatly ameliorated using the nanoscale adsorbents, called nanoadsorbents. Innovations in the development of novel carbon nanomaterials like fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene are among the most exciting and promising materials...

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology suggest that many of the current problems involving water quality can be solved or greatly ameliorated using the na-noscale adsorbents, called nanoadsorbents. Innovations in the development of novel carbon nanomaterials like fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene are among the most exciting and promising materials...

This paper describes the design and experimental analysis of novel artificial muscles, made of twisted and coiled nylon fibers, for powering a biomimetic robotic hand. The design is based on circulating hot and cold water to actuate the artificial muscles and obtain fast finger movements. The actuation system consists of a spring and a coiled muscl...

Thermophones are highly promising for such applications as high power sonar arrays, flexible loudspeakers, and noise cancellation devices. So far, freestanding carbon nanotube aerogel sheets provide the most attractive performance as a thermoacoustic heat source. However, the limited accessibility of large-size freestanding carbon nanotube aerogel...

Twisted carbon nanotube yarns have been shown to develop useful torsional and tensile actuation. Particularly useful are those hybrid yarns that incorporate a volume-changing guest material into the yarn pore space. Changing guest volume causes concomitant untwisting and shortening of the twisted yarn. Intriguingly, the magnitude of the tensile act...

High-performance artificial muscles have been produced from fibers having highly anisotropic thermal expansion. Inserting twist into these precursor fibers enables thermally-driven torsional actuation and can cause the formation of helical coils. Such coiled structures provide giant-stroke tensile actuation exceeding the 20% in-vivo contraction of...

Toward an Artificial Muscle In designing materials for artificial muscles, the goals are to find those that will combine high strokes, high efficiency, long cycle life, low hysteresis, and low cost. Now, Haines et al. (p. 868 ; see the Perspective by Yuan and Poulin ) show that this is possible. Twisting high-strength, readily available polymer fib...

Actuators (artificial muscles) comprising twist­spun nanofiber yarn or twistinserted polymer fibers generate torsional and/or tensile actuation when powered electrically, photonically, chemically, thermally, by absorption, or by other means. These artificial muscles utilize non­coiled or coiled yarns and can be either neat or comprising a guest. De...

Verfahren zum Abscheiden von Nanoteilchen (306) mit den folgenden Schritten: – Bereitstellen einer Mischung einer Flüssigkeit (402) mit Nanoteilchen (306) und einer Abscheid­Elektrode (304), wobei die Abscheid­Elektrode (304) auf einem optisch transparenten Substrat (302) ausgebildet ist, wobei die AbscheidElektrode (304) aus einem elektrisch leitf...

Artificial muscles are of practical interest, but few types have been commercially exploited. Typical problems include slow response, low strain and force generation, short cycle life, use of electrolytes, and low energy efficiency. We have designed guest-filled, twist-spun carbon nanotube yarns as electrolyte-free muscles that provide fast, high-f...

This book gives an introduction to nanostructured materials and guides the reader through their different engineering applications. It addresses the special phenomena and potentials involved in the applications without going into too much scientific detail of the physics and chemistry involved, which makes the reading interesting for beginners in t...

The use of natural nanomaterials is environmentally friendly, socially responsible and cost effective. Hence, several industries are investing in cheap ways to explore and process natural resources to make natural nanomaterials available. Natural nanomaterials are abundant; however, certain drawbacks such as incompatibility and extraction are a cha...

The range of materials currently available as fillers for nanocomposites include nanoparticles, nanoplatelets, carbon nanotubes, nanofibers, and, more recently, graphenes or even a combination of these unique materials. Several companies already supply a variety of ceramic, metal and polymer nanocomposite products that reach into many industrial se...

In this chapter, some of the tendencies in the fields of nanostructured materials for optoeletronic and ferroelectric applications in terms of research and industry are presented. Special emphasis is given to carbon nanotubes, graphene, perovskite, aurivillius and thin films. In the field of nanotechnology applied to ceramic materials, there are di...

The electrical conductivity of suspensions in liquid of several kinds of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is measured. Raw and soft-functionalized double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) appear to be the most promising for achieving a low electrical percolation threshold. A 0.35 vol.% DWCNTs–SiO2 nanocomposite is prepared by the sol–gel process and densifie...

The successful incorporation of functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (f-SWCNTs) into a silica matrix prepared by the sol–gel method is reported herein. SWCNTs produced through catalytic chemical-vapor deposition (CCVD) have been purified and functionalized with sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids to ensure a good dispersion in an aqueo...

A new method was developed for deposition of carbon nanotube networks (CNTNs) over transparent and electrically non-conductive substrates. This method allows the deposition of functionalized or surfactant-stabilized carbon nanotubes dispersed in water. The nanotube films can be applied over complex geometries, on non-conductive rigid or flexible su...

In this article we have measured the electrical behaviour of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) suspended in electrically insulating liquid. The concentration dependence of conductivity shows a percolation behaviour similar to that observed in electrical composites with an insulating matrix. The value of the critical percolation concentration is strongly dete...

In the present work we first report on a successful incorporation of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) into silica matrix prepared using an inorganic sol–gel method. Through this route non-aqueous solvents are avoided and the stability of the carbon nanotubes suspensions is not affected. SWCNTs produced by Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition...

The production of Fe–Mo/MgO by Solution Combustion Synthesis (SCS) for use as catalysts in single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) synthesis was evaluated. Glycine, urea, citric acid and polyethylene glycol 200 and 400 were tested as combustible agents (CA). Iron and magnesium nitrates and ammonium molybdate were used as catalyst precursors. Four diff...

Ultra-thin, optically transparent and electrically conducting films of pure carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely studied thanks to their promise for broad applications. In the present work, we study and compare different deposition techniques for the production of these networks: dip-coating, spray-coating, vacuum filtration and electrophoretic depos...

A method for the production of transparent carbon nanotube networks (CNTNs) over transparent substrates was developed. In this method, CNTNs were grown directly in the target surface by applying the catalyst in specific zones of the substrate through lithographic techniques. The networks can be also transferred from the original substrate to other...

This article describes the solution combustion synthesis technique as applicable to iron oxide powder production using urea as fuel and ferric nitrate as an oxidizer. It focuses on the thermodynamic modeling of the combustion reaction under different fuel-to-oxidant ratios. X-ray diffraction showed magnetite (Fe3O4) and hematite (α-Fe2O3) phase for...

Homogeneous mixtures containing iron oxide and amorphous SiO2 were obtained through the co-deposition of these oxides via combustion chemical vapor deposition technique (CCVD). This technique allows the deposition of thin films with low-cost precursors and equipments. After deposition, the deposited samples were submitted to a heat treatment in an...

The synthesis of chromium oxides by solution combustion synthesis was investigated. Ammonium dichromate, glycine, urea and ammonium nitrate dissolved in aqueous solution were used as the precursors of the oxides. The effect of different reaction parameters, such as fuel richness, stoichiometry and fuel leanness was evaluated; such parameters were m...

In this work, the Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition (CCVD) technique was used to synthesize carbon nanotubes (CNT). Natural gas (NG) was employed as a carbon source for the growing of CNT, while magnesium oxide was used as a catalyst support for the nanotubes synthesis. Two systems were utilized. The Fe–Mo/MgO system was obtained by the impregnat...

The production of magnesium–chromium oxides by solution combustion synthesis was investigated using glycine and urea for the first time. Ammonium dichromate, urea/glycine and ammonium nitrate aqueous solutions were used as the precursors of the oxides. The effect of different reaction parameters, such as fuel richness, stoichiometry and fuel leanne...

Chromium oxide and iron oxide solid solution was used as a catalyst for multi-walled carbon nanotubes synthesis by the catalytic chemical vapor deposition technique. The catalyst was prepared by the solution combustion synthesis method. Natural gas (NG) was employed as a carbon source for the carbon nanotube growth instead of methane, which is typi...

Amorphous silica films deposited by combustion chemical vapour deposition (CCVD) were modified by lithium addition in the precursor solution. The modified films were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The addition of lithium promoted the crystallization of Li2O–SiO2 compounds, mainly crystalline ph...