Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute Basparesh 2252-0449 15 3 2025 11 22 Structure and Application of Nanocellulose in Soft Robotics Structure and Application of Nanocellulose in Soft Robotics 23 33 2171 10.22063/basparesh.2025.35582.1716 FA Haleh Khoshnazar PhD Candidate, Sharif university of technology 0009-0002-9983-7267 Mohammad Reza Movahhedy Faculty of department of mechanical engineering, Sharif university of technology, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-5847-5944 Reza Naghdabadi Faculty of department of mechanical engineering, Sharif university of technology, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-1858-1355 Journal Article 2024 10 20 Soft robots and soft actuators have attracted much attention due to their flexibility, which befits them to interact with compliant parts in complex or biological environments. Nanocellulose as an abundant, renewable, biodegradable and biocompatible material with significant mechanical strength, is a great candidate to replace synthetic materials, reinforce materials or obtain anisotropic nanocomposites. Another noteworthy feature of nanocellulose is its high surface area and abundance of hydroxyl groups on its surface. Moreover, it is facile to alter its surface charge or surface chemical properties. Therefore, nanocellulose is a great choice for preparing humidity responsive actuators with high sensitivity and electroactive polymers. Non-uniform deformation of materials, as well as, the induced stress plays a crucial role on the performance of many soft actuators. This condition is achieved by applying non-uniformly an external stimulus, preparing heterogeneous structures including bilayers or multilayer structures, gradient materials or anisotropic nanocomposites, or using electroactive polymers. Nanocellulose is advantageous to prepare the proper structure for non-uniform deformation of material used to fabricate soft actuators. Therefore, the structure of nanocellulose is described and its application in soft robots and actuators is presented in this review. Soft robots and soft actuators have attracted much attention due to their flexibility, which befits them to interact with compliant parts in complex or biological environments. Nanocellulose as an abundant, renewable, biodegradable and biocompatible material with significant mechanical strength, is a great candidate to replace synthetic materials, reinforce materials or obtain anisotropic nanocomposites. Another noteworthy feature of nanocellulose is its high surface area and abundance of hydroxyl groups on its surface. Moreover, it is facile to alter its surface charge or surface chemical properties. Therefore, nanocellulose is a great choice for preparing humidity responsive actuators with high sensitivity and electroactive polymers. Non-uniform deformation of materials, as well as, the induced stress plays a crucial role on the performance of many soft actuators. This condition is achieved by applying non-uniformly an external stimulus, preparing heterogeneous structures including bilayers or multilayer structures, gradient materials or anisotropic nanocomposites, or using electroactive polymers. Nanocellulose is advantageous to prepare the proper structure for non-uniform deformation of material used to fabricate soft actuators. Therefore, the structure of nanocellulose is described and its application in soft robots and actuators is presented in this review. http://basparesh.ippi.ac.ir/article_2171_c8cb34dbc554d3e41175cfb8f846871e.pdf