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Layered liquid crystal elastomer actuators.

ABSTRACT: Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft, anisotropic materials that exhibit large shape transformations when subjected to various stimuli. Here we demonstrate a facile approach to enhance the out-of-plane work capacity of these materials by an order of magnitude, to nearly 20?J/kg. The enhancement in force output is enabled by the development of a room temperature polymerizable composition used both to prepare individual films, organized via directed self-assembly to retain arrays of topological defect profiles, as well as act as an adhesive to combine the LCE layers. The material actuator is shown to displace a load >2500× heavier than its own weight nearly 0.5?mm.

SUBMITTER: Guin T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6023890 | biostudies-other | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Layered liquid crystal elastomer actuators.

Guin Tyler T Settle Michael J MJ Kowalski Benjamin A BA Auguste Anesia D AD Beblo Richard V RV Reich Gregory W GW White Timothy J TJ

Nature communications 20180628 1

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft, anisotropic materials that exhibit large shape transformations when subjected to various stimuli. Here we demonstrate a facile approach to enhance the out-of-plane work capacity of these materials by an order of magnitude, to nearly 20 J/kg. The enhancement in force output is enabled by the development of a room temperature polymerizable composition used both to prepare individual films, organized via directed self-assembly to retain arrays of topol ...[more]

PMID: 29955053

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