Micron-sized main-chain liquid crystalline elastomer actuators with ultralarge amplitude contractions.
Responsive surfaces composed of cylindrical or square micrometer-sized thermoresponsive pillars made of thiol-ene nematic main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are produced by replica molding. The individual pillars behave as microactuators, showing ultralarge and reversible contractions of around 300-400% at the nematic to isotropic phase transition. The nematic main-chain LCE microactuators described here present contractions as large as the best macroscopic systems reported in the literature. Moreover, the contraction observed for this new system outperforms the best values already reported for other LCE microsystems.
Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, CNRS UMR 168, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm 75248 Paris cedex 05, France.
Hong
H
Yang
Axel
A
Buguin
Jean-Marie
JM
Taulemesse
Kosuke
K
Kaneko
Stéphane
S
Méry
Anne
A
Bergeret
Patrick
P
Keller
D020724:Elastomers / Q000737:chemistry*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
D020724:Elastomers