Fig. 1: Bio-inspiration, architectures, operational principle, and self-healing liquid of soft electronic pumps.
a The built-in bio-hydraulic actuation system of the spider. Spider utilizes its tubular heart to pump the hemolymph to its foot, thereby driving the foot joint to extend. b Architectures of soft electronic pumps. All the components of pumps, including needle electrodes, ring electrodes, supports, and shells, are made of soft materials, which make the pump fully soft and stretchable. Needle-hole electrode pair in pumps forming the minimum electrode pair modular unit is used to move liquid. c Schematic of pump’s reversibly bidirectional pumping capability. The pumping direction can be reversibly changed by selectively applying with voltages. d Schematic of pumping liquid between two cylindrical liquid reservoirs by the soft electronic pump. The pumping time T1 and T2 can be controlled by adjusting the applied voltages. e Operational principle of soft electronic pumps. Free ions are generated by the positively charged process when applied to a strong electric field, and then these ions subjected to the action of Coulombic forces will move along the electric field lines from the positive electrode to grounding electrodes, directly dragging neutral liquid molecules flow to form a strong jet. The negatively discharged process re-forms these ions into neutral liquid molecules when they reach the grounding electrodes. f Schematic of self-healing liquid pumped by soft electronic pump to heal the damages. The self-healing liquid is fabricated by dissolving evenly tung oil into dibutyl sebacate, which can form a solid film when exposed to air.
