Desynchronized liquid crystalline network actuators with deformation reversal capability.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33504810.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-20938-6 and PMC identifier 7840968.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Liquid crystalline network (LCN) actuator normally deforms upon thermally or optically induced order-disorder phase transition, switching once between two shapes (shape 1 in LC phase and shape 2 in isotropic state) for each stimulation on/off cycle. Herein, we report an LCN actuator that deforms from shape 1 to shape 2 and then reverses the deformation direction to form shape 3 on heating or under light only, thus completing the shape switch twice for one stimulation on/off cycle. The deformation reversal capability is obtained with a monolithic LCN actuator whose two sides are made to start deforming at different temperatures and exerting different reversible strains, by means of asymmetrical crosslinking and/or asymmetrical stretching. This desynchronized actuation strategy offers possibilities in developing light-fueled LCN soft robots. In particular, the multi-stage bidirectional shape change enables multimodal, light-driven locomotion from the same LCN actuator by simply varying the light on/off times.