| Citation: |
Zhijian Wang, Yang Wang, Shengqiang Cai, Jiping Yang. Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Soft Actuators. Materials Lab 2022, 1, 220030. doi: 10.54227/mlab.20220030
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Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Soft Actuators
Published as part of the Virtual Special Issue “Beihang University at 70”
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Abstract
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a type of responsive materials combining liquid crystal mesogens with polymer networks. The LCEs exhibit outstanding actuation performance responsive to multiple external stimuli and show great potential as soft actuators. However, compared with conventional soft actuators, the LCEs need to be carefully synthesized and a few fabrication methods have been developed. Herein, we highlight the strategies for the material design and manufacturing techniques. Several recent studies on the mechanical design for LCE actuators are overviewed. We further discuss the challenges and future perspectives of the LCE based actuators for soft robots.
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Keywords:
- Liquid crystal elastomers /
- Soft actuators /
- Soft robots /
- 3D printing
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Author Biography
Zhijian Wang is currently a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Beihang University. He obtained his bachelor and PhD degree from Peking University in 2010 and 2015. Then, he worked in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) as a postdoctoral researcher between 2015 and 2020. He joined Beihang University in 2020. His research is mainly focused on the synthesis and manufacturing of soft intelligent materials, mechanics of soft materials, and the design and fabrication of soft robots. -
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Received Date:
26 April 2022
Accepted Date:
20 May 2022
Publish Date:
12 July 2022
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Zhijian Wang, Yang Wang, Shengqiang Cai, Jiping Yang. Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Soft Actuators. Materials Lab 2022, 1, 220030. doi: 10.54227/mlab.20220030
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Figure 1.
(a) Schematic illustration of the phase transition of LCEs. The LCEs can generate large and reversible actuation based on the liquid crystal-isotropic phase transition. (b) Schematic illustration of the manufacturing techniques of LCEs.
