Until now, many carbon-based soft actuators with excellent
performance
have been developed, and various indicators of actuators are close
to the limit. However, compared with the intelligence and versatility
of natural biological muscles, soft actuators still have the shortcomings
of single function and insufficient intelligence. Herein, polyaniline/reduced
graphene oxide/carbon nanotube (PANI/RGO/CNT) composites are fully
used to design and fabricate a smart gripper with a self-powered temperature-sensing
function. First of all, the PANI/RGO/CNT composites have the characteristics
of low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and negative temperature
resistivity. By cooperating with polymers with high CTE, a multifunctional
bilayer actuator with a temperature-sensing function can be constructed
with a temperature coefficient of resistance of 2364 ppm K–1. With the light irradiation (power density of 300 mW cm–2), the surface temperature, bending curvature, and resistance change
of the actuator are as high as 48.8 °C, 0.86 cm–1, and −6.1%, respectively. Second, the PANI/RGO/CNT composite
also possesses the advantage of large-area capacitance (165.8 mF cm–2). Thus, an integrated bilayer actuator with energy
storage modules can be constructed through clever structural design
and used as deformable supercapacitors. Finally, based on the similarity
in structure and actuation mechanism of the multifunctional bilayer
actuator and the integrated bilayer actuator, a smart gripper with
a self-powered temperature-sensing function is proposed to provide
real-time feedback of the change in temperature of the smart gripper
as it grasps the object. The versatility of the smart gripper is achieved
without increasing the complexity of the structure, demonstrating
the advantages of the design concept of integrating sensing and energy
storage in the design of soft actuators. The proposed PANI/RGO/CNT
composites have great potential to be used in the fields of intelligent
actuators, deformable supercapacitors, and artificial muscles.