A Photoactivated Artificial Muscle Model Unit: Reversible, Photoinduced Sliding of Nanosheets

A novel photoactivated artificial muscle model unit is reported. Here we show that organic/inorganic hybrid nanosheets reversibly slide horizontally on a giant scale and the interlayer spaces in the layered hybrid structure shrink and expand vertically by photoirradiation. The sliding movement of the system on a giant scale is the first example of an artificial muscle model unit having much similarity with that in natural muscle fibrils. In particular, our layered hybrid molecular system exhibits a macroscopic morphological change on a giant scale (1500 nm) relative to the molecular size of 1 nm by means of a reversible sliding mechanism.