Remote Sensing and Remote Actuation via Silicone–Magnetic Nanorod Composites

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Stottlemire, B. J., Miller, J. D., Whitlow, J., Huayamares, S. G., Dhar, P., He, M., Berkland, C. J., Remote Sensing and Remote Actuation via Silicone–Magnetic Nanorod Composites. Adv. Mater. Technol. 2021, 6, 2001099. https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202001099, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202001099. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.The capacity for a soft material to combine remote sensing and remote actuation is highly desirable for many applications in soft robotics and wearable technologies. This work presents a silicone elastomer with a suspension of a small weight fraction of ferromagnetic nickel nanorods, which is capable of both sensing deformation and altering stiffness in the presence of an external magnetic field. Cylinders composed of silicone elastomer and 1% by weight nickel nanorods experience large increases in compressive modulus when exposed to an external magnetic field. Incremental compressions totaling 600 g of force applied to the same silicone–nanorod composites increase the magnetic field strength measured by a Hall effect sensor enabling the material to be used as a soft load cell capable of detecting the rate, duration, and magnitude of force applied. In addition, lattice structures are 3D printed using an ink composed of silicone elastomer and 1% by weight nickel nanorods, which possess the same sensing capacity