A small graphene oxide sheet/polyvinylidene fluoride bilayer actuator with large and rapid responses to multiple stimuli

A high-performance actuator should be able to deliver large-shape deformations, fast actuations and sensitive responses to multiple stimuli. Here, we report such an actuator constructed from one layer of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and another layer of small sheets of graphene oxide (SGO) with a negative CTE. The opposite deformations of both actuation layers make the SGO/PVDF bilayer...