Selective Decrosslinking in Liquid Crystal Polymer Actuator for Optical Reconfiguration of Origami and Light-fueled Locomotion

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition
• Main Authors: Jiang, Zhichao, Xiao, Yaoyu, Tong, Xia, Zhao, Yue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany 28-02-2019
• Subjects: liquid crystal polymer; optical reconfigurability; soft actuator; soft robot
• ISSN: 1521-3773

The ability to optically reconfigure an existing actuator of liquid crystal polymer network (LCN) so that it can display a new actuation behavior or function is highly desired in developing materials for soft robotics application. Herein we demonstrate a powerful approach relying on selective polymer chain decrosslinking in LCN actuator with uniaxial LC alignment. Using an anthracene-containing LCN, spatially controlled optical decrosslinking can be realized through photocleavage of anthracene dimers under 254 nm UV light, which alters the distribution of actuation (crosslinked) and non-actuation (decrosslinked) domains and thus determines the actuation behavior upon order-disorder phase transition. Based on this mechanism, a single actuator of flat shape can be reconfigured in an on-demand manner to exhibit reversible shape transformation such as self-folding into origami 3D structures. Moreover, using dye-doped LCN actuator, light-fueled micro-walker can be optically reconfigured to adopt different locomotion behaviors, changing from moving in the laser scanning direction to moving in the opposite direction.