Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

HYGRORESPONSIVE MATERIALS

Actuators powered by water hydrogen bonds

Nanoporous tripeptide crystals mechanically deform upon water evaporation due to the strengthening of the water hydrogen bonding inside the pores, which causes the distortion of the surrounding supramolecular network, creating stresses that extend through the crystal lattice and result in actuation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A water-responsive supramolecular tripeptide crystal.

Adapted with permission from ref. 1, Springer Nature Ltd.

References

  1. Piotrowska, R. et al. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0799-0 (2020).

  2. Zhang, L., Chizhik, S., Wen, Y. & Naumov, P. Adv. Funct. Mater. 26, 1040–1053 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Levin, A. et al. Nat. Phys. 12, 926–930 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Arazoe, H. et al. Nat. Mater. 15, 1084–1089 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Cavusoglu, A.-H., Chen, X., Gentine, P. & Sahin, O. Nat. Commun. 8, 617 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang, L. & Naumov, P. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 54, 8642–8647 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Erb, R. M., Sander, J. S., Grisch, R. & Studart, A. R. Nat. Commun. 4, 1712 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Panče Naumov.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Naumov, P. Actuators powered by water hydrogen bonds. Nat. Mater. 20, 287–288 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-00948-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-00948-x

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing