Macroscopically anisotropic hydrogels were synthesized by hybridization of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with liquid crystalline inorganic nanosheets; their anisotropies in the structure and properties are demonstrated.

Poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) hydrogel films doped with uniaxially aligned liquid crystalline (LC) nanosheets adsorbed with a dye are synthesized and its anomalous photothermal deformation is demonstrated. The alignment of the nanosheet LC at the cm-scale is easily achieved by the application of an in-plane or out-of-plane AC electric field during photo-polymerization. A photoresponsive pattern is printable onto the gel with μm-scale resolution by adsorption of the dye through a pattern-holed silicone rubber. When the gel is irradiated with light, only the colored part is photothermally deformed. Interestingly, the photo-irradiated gel shows temporal expansion along one direction followed by anisotropic shrinkage, which is an anomalous behavior for a conventional PNIPA gel.

Back Cover: Poly‐(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) hydrogel films doped with uniaxially aligned liquid crystalline nanosheets are synthesized with the help of an electric field. The gels are printed with a photo‐responsive dye pattern with μm‐scale resolution. The photo‐irradiated gel shows temporal expansion along one direction followed by anisotropic shrinkage, which is an anomalous behavior for a conventional PNIPA gel. Further details can be found in the article by T. Inadomi, S. Ikeda, Y. Okumura, H. Kikuchi, and N. Miyamoto* on page 1741.