Oh, Min-Ha Kim, Young-Hwan Lee, Seung-Min Hwang, Gyeong-Seok Kim, Kyung-Sub Kim, Yoon-Nam Bae, Jae-Young Kim, Ju-Young Lee, Ju-Yong Kim, Yu-Chan Kim, Sang Yup Kang, Seung-Kyun 2024-01-19T09:01:29Z 2024-01-19T09:01:29Z 2023-09-21 2023-08 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/113386 Developing soft robots that can control their own life cycle and degrade on-demand while maintaining hyper elasticity is a notable research challenge. On-demand degradable soft robots, which conserve their original functionality during operation and rapidly degrade under specific external stimulation, present the opportunity to self-direct the disappearance of temporary robots. This study proposes soft robots and materials that exhibit excellent mechanical stretchability and can degrade under ultraviolet light by mixing a fluoride-generating diphenyliodonium hexafluorophosphate with a silicone resin. Spectroscopic analysis revealed the mechanism of Si-O-Si backbone cleavage using fluoride ion (F-) and thermal analysis indicated accelerated decomposition at elevated temperatures. In addition, we demonstrated a robotics application by fabricating electronics integrated gaiting robot and a fully closed-loop trigger disintegration robot for autonomous, application-oriented functionalities. This study provides a simple yet novel strategy for designing life cycle mimicking soft robotics that can be applied to reduce soft robotics waste, explore hazardous areas, and ensure hardware security with on demand destructive material platforms. English American Association for the Advancement of Science Lifetime-configurable soft robots via photodegradable silicone elastomer composites Article 10.1126/sciadv.adh9962 1 Science Advances, v.9, no.34 Science Advances 9 34 Y scie scopus 001054596800004 2-s2.0-85168719295 Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology - Other Topics Article DESIGN DEGRADATION PERSPECTIVE