Soft actuators have garnered significant attention due to their promising applications in wearable devices, soft robotics, and other related fields. However, achieving substantial reversible deformation and high output force simultaneously remains a long-standing challenge. In this study, graphene/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite materials with high photothermal conversion efficiency and rapid photo-responsiveness were successfully developed. Inspired by the structure of biological muscles and skeletons, a novel approach involving carbon fiber bundles as reinforcement skeletons was proposed to enhance actuator performance. A composite material/carbon fiber skeleton/PDMS actuator was fabricated. With the integration of the carbon fiber skeleton, the actuator demonstrated a remarkable bending angle of 90° (3.5 times greater than that of actuators without the carbon fiber skeleton) and an output force of 0.89 mN (1.34 times higher than that of actuators without the carbon fiber skeleton) under infrared laser irradiation at 4.15 W/cm². This advanced actuator holds great potential for applications in areas such as soft robotic grippers and artificial muscles that demand high load-bearing capacity.

There has been a perpetual pursuit of improved sensitivity and reproducibility in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) devices. The two-dimensional material-based, metal-free SERS platform has emerged as a promising option due to the atomically flat surface and diverse surface electronic states. However, the inherently low light absorption efficiency and limited electronic state density lead to unsatisfactory sensitivity. Here, a metal-free, reusable, and plasma-treated graphene–MoS₂ heterostructure as a SERS platform for high-sensitivity molecule detection is proposed. The heterostructure exhibits excellent SERS performance with a limit of detection as low as 10⁻⁹ M for probe molecules. The plasma treatment changes the electronic and structural properties of the heterostructures, increasing the charge transfer (CT), facilitated by the modified surface chemistry and light absorption rate, resulting in a more effective light–matter coupling and stronger signal enhancement. Furthermore, the structural disorders are created by the plasma irradiation, leading to the generation of local dipoles and hence enhancing the photoinduced CT. The results provide alternative avenues for developing low-cost and high-performance SERS devices.