Electrothermal soft manipulator enabling safe transport and handling of thin cell/tissue sheets and bioelectronic devices
Authors
Byoung Soo Kim ; Min Ku Kim ; Younghak Cho ; Eman E Hamed ; Martha U Gillette ; Hyeongyun Cha ; Nenad Miljkovic ; Vinay K Aakalu ; Kai Kang ; Kyung-No Son ; Kyle M Schachtschneider ; Lawrence B Schook ; Chenfei Hu ; Gabriel Popescu ; Yeonsoo Park ; William C Ballance ; Seunggun Yu ; Sung Gap Im ; Jonghwi Lee ; Chi Hwan Lee ; Hyunjoon Kong
Living" cell sheets or bioelectronic chips have great potentials to improve the quality of diagnostics and therapies. However, handling these thin and delicate materials remains a grand challenge because the external force applied for gripping and releasing can easily deform or damage the materials. This study presents a soft manipulator that can manipulate and transport cell/tissue sheets and ultrathin wearable biosensing devices seamlessly by recapitulating how a cephalopod's suction cup works. The soft manipulator consists of an ultrafast thermo-responsive, microchanneled hydrogel layer with tissue-like softness and an electric heater layer. The electric current to the manipulator drives microchannels of the gel to shrink/expand and results in a pressure change through the microchannels. The manipulator can lift/detach an object within 10 s and can be used repeatedly over 50 times. This soft manipulator would be highly useful for safe and reliable assembly and implantation of therapeutic cell/tissue sheets and biosensing devices.