Programmable Liquid Crystal Elastomers Prepared by Thiol-Ene Photopolymerization. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The spontaneous conversion of a flat film into a 3-D shape requires local programming of the mechanical response. Historically, the ability to locally program the mechanical response of high strain (>30%) liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) has been limited to magnetic or mechanical alignment techniques, which limits spatial resolution. Recently, we reported on the preparation of LCEs capable of 55% strain with spatial control of the mechanical response at scales as small as 0.01 mm2. Here, we report a distinct formulation strategy to realize programmable stimulus-response in LCEs. Photopolymerization of thiol-ene/acrylate formulations yields materials that exhibit large reversible strain up to 150%. The photopolymerization reaction is extremely rapid, reducing preparation time from days to minutes. The mechanical behavior of these materials can be tuned by varying cross-link density. Spatial and hierarchical programming of the director profile is demonstrated, enabling 3-D shape change, including twisting ribbons and localized Gaussian curvature.

published proceedings

  • ACS Macro Lett

altmetric score

  • 6

author list (cited authors)

  • Ware, T. H., Perry, Z. P., Middleton, C. M., Iacono, S. T., & White, T. J.

citation count

  • 103

complete list of authors

  • Ware, Taylor H||Perry, Zachary P||Middleton, Claire M||Iacono, Scott T||White, Timothy J

publication date

  • September 2015