ArticleNature communications2023
High speed underwater hydrogel robots with programmable motions powered by light.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reducing Nematic-Isotropic Transition Temperature Improves Phototropic Actuation in Printable Liquid Crystal Elastomers.Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Polymerization Kinetics-Mediated Topological Entanglement Enables High-Contrast 3D Self-Morphing in Hydrogels.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Decoupling Photochemical and Photothermal Effects Using Molecular Motors Enables Fast, Intelligent, and Life-Like Motions in Soft Materials.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Highly Programmable Liquid Crystalline Polyurethane/MXene Hybrids for Large-Strain, High-Work-Capacity Artificial Muscles.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Strong, Fast-Response Printable Lignin/PNIPAM Thermo-Responsive Hydrogel via Hierarchical Phase Separation.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Nonmonotonic rate-dependent adhesion of hydrogels.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Multi-layered marble for hydrogel encapsulation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Additive-Free TiAdvanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Intelligent structural microbatteries for adaptive microrobots.National science review · 2025Article
- Programmable Hydrogels: Frontiers in Dynamic Closed-Loop Systems, Biomimetic Synergy, and Clinical Translation.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Micro/Nanorobots for Combating Brain Disorders: Challenges, Advances, and Perspectives.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Recent Advances in Dielectric Elastomer Actuator-Based Soft Robots: Classification, Applications, and Future Perspectives.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Micro/nano-robotic medical device: preparation, actuation mechanisms and their applications in medicine.RSC advances · 2025Review
- An Ultrasonic Microrobot Enabling Ultrafast Bidirectional Navigation in Confined Tubular Environments.Nano-micro letters · 2025Article
- Theoretical Modeling of a Bionic Arm with Elastomer Fiber as Artificial Muscle Controlled by Periodic Illumination.Polymers · 2025Article
- Flaw Sensitivity of Tough and Self-Healing Hydrogels with Hierarchical Structure.Polymer science & technology (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- Hydrogel-Based Continuum Soft Robots.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Multi-mode geometrically gated encryption with 4D morphing hydrogel.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A graphene-based photo-electro-thermal metamaterial for soft fixtures with superior grasping performance.iScience · 2025Article
- High-Performance MXene Hydrogel for Self-Propelled Marangoni Swimmers and Water-Enabled Electricity Generator.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Stimuli-responsive shape-changing hydrogels are attractive candidates for use as underwater soft robots. The bottleneck lies in the low actuation speed inherently limited by the water diffusion between hydrogels and their surrounding environment. In addition, accessing complex motions is restricted by the material fabrication methods. Here we report a hitherto unknown mechanism to achieve high-speed and programmable actuations for a disulfide crosslinked thermally responsive hydrogel. The dynamic photo-activated disulfide bond exchange allows photo-mechanical programming to introduce spatio-selective network anisotropy. This gives rise to an actuation behavior dominated by thermally driven conformation change of the locally oriented polymer chains instead of the common mass-diffusion-based mechanism. With the incorporation of photothermal fillers, light-powered oscillation at frequencies as high as 1.7 Hz is realized. This, coupled with the versatility of the programming, allows access to robots with diverse high-speed motions including continuous swimming, step-wise walking, and rotating.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.