Episode 4: Optical waveguide enables self-healing soft robotic system

MRS Bulletin Materials News Podcast · Mar 21, 2023 · 4m

In this podcast episode, MRS Bulletin’s Laura Leay interviews Rob Shepherd from Cornell University about an adaptive-responsive self-healing soft robotic system. Shepherd’s research team has developed waveguides made of self-healing polyurethane urea crosslinked with aromatic sulfide bonds. When this material is cut, relatively weak hydrogen bonds quickly form. Disulfide exchange then occurs and, although this takes longer than the formation of hydrogen bonds, results in much stronger bonding and so recovering much of the mechanical strength of the polymer. Light is transmitted down the…