title: Optical pendulum generator based on photomechanical liquid-crystalline actuators.
abstract: For converting light energy into electricity, an optical pendulum generator was designed by combining photomechanical movement of liquid-crystalline actuator (LCA) with Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction. Bilayer cantilever actuators were first fabricated with LDPE and LCA. Their photomechanical movement drove the attached copper coils to cut magnetic line of force generating electricity. The output electricity was proportional to the changing rate of the magnetic flux, which was greatly influenced by light intensity, film thickness, and sample size. Continuous electrical output was also achieved. This simple strategy may expand applications of photoactive materials in the capture and storage of light energy.
authors: †State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Non-metal Composites and Functional Materials and ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.|§Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and ⊥Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Rong
authors: R
authors: Tang
authors: †State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Non-metal Composites and Functional Materials and ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.|§Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and ⊥Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Ziyi
authors: Z
authors: Liu
authors: †State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Non-metal Composites and Functional Materials and ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.|§Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and ⊥Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Dandan
authors: D
authors: Xu
authors: †State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Non-metal Composites and Functional Materials and ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.|§Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and ⊥Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: †State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Non-metal Composites and Functional Materials and ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.|§Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and ⊥Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Yu
authors: †State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Non-metal Composites and Functional Materials and ‡School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.|§Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and ⊥Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Haifeng
authors: H
authors: Yu
keywords: electromagnetic induction; liquid-crystalline actuator; optical pendulum generator; photoactive materials; photomechanical materials