As one type of active soft matter, polymer gels coupled mechanical and chemical oscillations, such as Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) gels are widely researched and developed into biomimetic actuators. In the previous literature, the self-oscillating BZ cylindrical gels can generate swelling waves along their longitudinal direction when they are operated without external stimuli. Here, we explore the contraction waves of BZ gels by the means of changing the external mechanical boundary. We firstly synthesize the self-oscillating gel, which is composed of N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAm) gel and a covalently bound metal catalyst of the ruthenium complex. Then, the stress-curve of the gels is investigated to evaluate the elastic modulus of each state of the BZ gel and verified our method. Finally, we investigate the effects of several factors including initial diameters of the gel, various strain, and measuring process on the generation of contraction waves in gels undergoing the BZ reaction by experiments.

作为活性软物质的一种类型，耦合了机械和化学振荡的聚合物凝胶，例如Belousov–Zhabotinsky（BZ）凝胶，已被广泛研究并发展为仿生致动器。在以前的文献中，当自激振荡的BZ圆柱状凝胶在没有外部刺激的情况下运行时，会沿其纵向产生膨胀波。在这里，我们通过改变外部机械边界来探索BZ凝胶的收缩波。我们首先合成了自振荡凝胶，它由N-异丙基丙烯酰胺（NIPAAm）凝胶和钌配合物的共价键合金属催化剂组成。然后，研究了凝胶的应力曲线，以评估BZ凝胶每种状态的弹性模量，并验证了我们的方法。最后，