Ultralow Voltage High-Performance Bioartificial Muscles Based on Ionically Crosslinked Polypyrrole-Coated Functional Carboxylated Bacterial Cellulose for Soft Robots

The development of ultralow voltage high-performance bioartificial muscles with large bending strain, fast response time, and excellent actuation durability is highly desirable for promising applications such as soft robotics, active biomedical devices, flexible haptic displays, and wearable electronics. Herein, a novel high-performance low-priced bioartificial muscle based on functional carboxylated bacterial cellulose (FCBC) and polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles is reported, exhibiting a large bending strain of 0.93%, long actuated bending durability (96% retention for 5 h) under an ultralow harmonic input of 0.5 V, broad frequency bandwidth up to 10 Hz, fast response time (≈4 s) in DC responses, high energy density (6.81 KJ m⁻³), and high power density (5.11 KW m⁻³), all of which mainly stem from its high surface area and porosity, large specific capacitance, tuned mechanical properties, and strong ionic interactions of cations and anions in ionic liquid with FCBC and PPy nanoparticles. More importantly, bioinspired applications such as the grapple robot, bionic medical stent, bionic flower, and wings-vibrating have been realized. These successful demonstrations offer a viable means for developing high-performance bioartificial muscles for next-generation soft bioelectronics including bioinspired robotics, biomedical microdevices, and wearable electronics.