| 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
|
Liquid Crystal Elastomers for Soft Actuators
Published as part of the Virtual Special Issue “Beihang University at 70”
-
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.
-
Keywords:
- Liquid crystal elastomers /
- Soft actuators /
- Soft robots /
- 3D printing
-
-
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. -
References
1. C. A. Aubin, B. Gorissen, E. Milana, P. R. Buskohl, N. Lazarus, G. A. Slipher, C. Keplinger, J. Bongard, F. Iida, J. A. Lewis, R. F. Shepherd, Nature, 2022, 602, 393 2. D. Rus, M. T. Tolley, Nature, 2015, 521, 467 3. G. M. Whitesides, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, 57, 4258 4. R. F. Shepherd, F. Ilievski, W. Choi, S. A. Morin, A. A. Stokes, A. D. Mazzeo, X. Chen, M. Wang, G. M. Whitesides, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2011, 108, 20400 5. M. T. Tolley, R. F. Shepherd, B. Mosadegh, K. C. Galloway, M. Wehner, M. Karpelson, R. J. Wood, G. M. Whitesides, Soft Robot., 2014, 1, 213 6. P. Rothemund, N. Kellaris, S. K. Mitchell, E. Acome, C. Keplinger, Adv. Mater., 2021, 33, 2003375 7. G. Gu, J. Zou, R. Zhao, X. Zhao and X. Zhu, Sci. Robot., 2018, 3, eaat2874 8. C.-Y. Lo, Y. Zhao, C. Kim, Y. Alsaid, R. Khodambashi, M. Peet, R. Fisher, H. Marvi, S. Berman, D. Aukes, X. He, Mater. Today, 2021, 50, 35 9. Y. Kim, J. van den Berg, A. J. Crosby, Nat. Mater., 2021, 20, 1695 10. C. Ohm, M. Brehmer, R. Zentel, Adv. Mater., 2010, 22, 3366 11. J. M. McCracken, B. R. Donovan, T. J. White, Adv. Mater., 2020, 32, 1906564 12. S. W. Ula, N. A. Traugutt, R. H. Volpe, R. R. Patel, K. Yu, C. M. Yakacki, Liquid Cryst. Rev., 2018, 6, 78 13. K. M. Herbert, H. E. Fowler, J. M. McCracken, K. R. Schlafmann, J. A. Koch, T. J. White, Nat. Rev. Mater., 2022, 7, 23 14. T. J. White, D. J. Broer, Nat. Mater., 2015, 14, 1087 15. H. F. Lu, M. Wang, X. M. Chen, B. P. Lin, H. Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 14364 16. S. Li, M. M. Lerch, J. T. Waters, B. Deng, R. S. Martens, Y. Yao, D. Y. Kim, K. Bertoldi, A. Grinthal, A. C. Balazs, J. Aizenberg, Nature, 2022, 605, 76 17. M. Wang, Z. W. Cheng, B. Zuo, X. M. Chen, S. Huang, H. Yang, ACS Macro Lett., 2020, 9, 860 18. L. Liu, M. H. Liu, L. L. Deng, B. P. Lin, H. Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2017, 139, 11333 19. Z. Z. Nie, B. Zuo, M. Wang, S. Huang, X. M. Chen, Z. Y. Liu, H. Yang, Nat. Commun., 2021, 12, 2334 20. Z. Wang, S. Cai, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2020, 8, 6610 21. J. Kupfer, H. Finkelmann, Makromol. Chem. , Rapid Commun., 1991, 12, 717 22. C. M. Yakacki, M. Saed, D. P. Nair, T. Gong, S. M. Reed, C. N. Bowman, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 18997 23. Z. Pei, Y. Yang, Q. Chen, E. M. Terentjev, Y. Wei, Y. Ji, Nat. Mater., 2014, 13, 36 24. Z. C. Jiang, Y. Y. Xiao, L. Yin, L. Han, Y. Zhao, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2020, 59, 4925 25. Y. Y. Xiao, Z. C. Jiang, X. Tong, Y. Zhao, Adv. Mater., 2019, 31, 1903452 26. Z. Wang, H. Tian, Q. He, S. Cai, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2017, 9, 33119 27. Y. Li, Y. Zhang, O. Rios, J. K. Keum, M. R. Kessler, Soft Matter, 2017, 13, 5021 28. Y. Wang, Z. Wang, Q. He, P. Iyer, S. Cai, Adv. Intell. Sys., 2020, 2, 1900177 29. S. Huang, Y. Shen, H. K. Bisoyi, Y. Tao, Z. Liu, M. Wang, H. Yang, Q. Li, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021, 143, 12543 30. M. O. Saed, A. Gablier, E. M. Terentejv, Adv. Funct. Mater., 2020, 30, 1906458 31. Z. Wang, Q. He, Y. Wang, S. Cai, Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 2811 32. Z. Wang, Y. Guo, S. Cai, J. Yang, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater., 2022, 4, 3153 33. C. P. Ambulo, J. J. Burroughs, J. M. Boothby, H. Kim, M. R. Shankar, T. H. Ware, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2017, 9, 37332 34. A. Kotikian, R. L. Truby, J. W. Boley, T. J. White, J. A. Lewis, Adv. Mater., 2018, 30, 1706164 35. M. López-Valdeolivas, D. Liu, D. J. Broer, C. Sánchez-Somolinos, Macromol. Rapid Commun., 2018, 39, 1700710 36. D. J. Roach, X. Kuang, C. Yuan, K. Chen, H. J. Qi, Smart Mater. Struct., 2018, 27, 125011 37. Z. Wang, Z. Wang, Y. Zheng, Q. He, Y. Wang, S. Cai, Sci. Adv., 2020, 6, eabc0034 38. Z. Wang, N. Boechler, S. Cai, Addit. Manuf., 2022, 52, 102678 39. A. Kotikian, J. M. Morales, A. Lu, J. Mueller, Z. S. Davidson, J. W. Boley, J. A. Lewis, Adv. Mater., 2021, 33, 2101814 40. Q. He, Z. Wang, Z. Song, S. Cai, Adv. Mater. Technol., 2019, 4, 1800244 41. Q. He, Z. Wang, Y. Wang, Z. Song, S. Cai, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2020, 12, 35464 42. Q. He, Z. Wang, Y. Wang, Z. Wang, C. Li, R. Annapooranan, J. Zeng, R. Chen, S. Cai, Sci. Robot., 2021, 6, eabi9704 43. Q. He, Z. Wang, Y. Wang, A. Minori, M. T. Tolley, S. Cai, Sci. Adv., 2019, 5, eaax5746 44. Z. Wang, K. Li, Q. He, S. Cai, Adv. Mater., 2019, 31, 1806849 45. Q. He, Y. Zheng, Z. Wang, X. He, S. Cai, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 2020, 142, 104013 46. Z. S. Davidson, H. Shahsavan, A. Aghakhani, Y. Guo, L. Hines, Y. Xia, S. Yang, M. Sitti, Sci. Adv., 2019, 5, eaay0855 -
Rights and permissions
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Figures(2)
Information
Received Date:
26 April 2022
Revised Date:
28 May 2022
Accepted Date:
03 June 2022
Publish Date:
12 July 2022
Article Metrics
Export File
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
Format
Content
DownLoad:
-
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.
