Liquid Crystal Polymer‐Based Soft Robots

Xiao, Yao‐Yu; Jiang, Zhi‐Chao; Zhao, Yue

doi:10.1002/aisy.202000148

Cited by 81 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 137 publications

(211 reference statements)

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“…[10][11][12] Moreover, the anisotropic mechanical properties of the LCEs can be harnessed to program their shape changes, enabling complex deformations including bending, coiling, twisting, and helixing. [3,13,14] Recently, significant progress has been achieved in the field of LCEs for materials synthesis, [15][16][17][18][19] fabrication, [16,[20][21][22][23][24] and expansion of LCE applications., [25][26][27][28][29][30][31] which has led to the renaissance of LCEs from both scientific and engineering aspects. However, the preparation of LCEs as actuators typically requires mesogen alignment prior to cross-linking, which leads to complicated fabrication processes unlike those required for fabricating conventional elastomers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust and Reprocessable Artificial Muscles Based on Liquid Crystal Elastomers with Dynamic Thiourea Bonds

Lee

Bae

Hwang

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

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This work reports a new class of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) cross-linked with poly(ether-thiourea) comprising a triethylene glycol spacer (LCE-TUEG) wherein thiourea bonds impart a hydrogen bonding capability as well as permit dynamic covalent bond (DCB) exchange at elevated temperatures. While hydrogen bonding enhances the mechanical properties of LCE-TUEG, the DCB allows the macromolecular network rearrangement of the LCEs, resulting in various useful properties that are not present in conventional LCEs, including the ability to undergo welding, melt and solution reprocessing, reprogrammable actuation, and self-healing. By exploiting these dynamic features, electrically powered artificial muscles are fabricated that can be actuated by Joule heating using a resistive wire. In particular, an excellent specific work is demonstrated (≈65 J kg −1 ) for the artificial muscle, and full recyclability of both the LCE matrix and the metallic heating wire is achieved. Furthermore, a biomimetic artificial hand is created by welding and assembling multiple LCE-TUEG films embedded with heating wires, followed by mechanical alignment. The integration of a microcontroller to the artificial hand enables the selective actuation of each finger, and various hand gestures are successfully demonstrated.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust and Reprocessable Artificial Muscles Based on Liquid Crystal Elastomers with Dynamic Thiourea Bonds

Lee

Bae

Hwang

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

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“…This indirect heating strategy allows for the localized and efficient temperature control of the polymer system, where the actuation can be precisely controlled in larger LCE systems. [ 94 ]…”

Section: Mechanisms For Electrically Driven Actuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soft Actuator Materials for Electrically Driven Haptic Interfaces

Ankit

Nirmal

et al. 2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Haptics involves human touch sensing and tactile feedback and plays a crucial role in physical interactions of humans with their environment. There is an ever‐increasing interest in development of haptic technologies, due to their role in various applications such as robotics, virtual and augmented reality, healthcare, and smart electronics. Electrically driven actuation mechanisms for soft materials like dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), electrohydraulic soft actuators (ESAs), ionic polymer−metal composites (IPMCs), and liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) hold the potential for the development of the next generation of haptic feedback devices due to a variety of advantages such as light weight and compact design, untethered activation and control, large actuation strains, and distributed and localized actuation. Herein, a detailed look is taken at the advancement in material designs for these electrically driven soft actuators. A detailed analysis of the different strategies for improving the electromechanical performance of existing material systems is presented. Approaches adopted to synthesize novel material systems are explained. Advancements in compliant electrode materials for the electrically driven soft actuators are also described. The conclusion reflects on the main challenges in the field and provides perspectives on recent advancements expected to have a significant impact.

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“…As a type of ordered crosslinked polymer, liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have shown remarkable structural transformations by patterning the complex molecular orientations [ 7 ]. The change in the molecular ordering of LCE under external stimuli such as light [ 8 ], heat [ 9 ], or humidity [ 10 ] gives rise to a variety of three-dimensional (3D) shape morphs thanks to its anisotropic elasticity [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. For example, Ware et al demonstrated arrays of cones and anti-cones transformed from a flat LCE film by pixelating its two-dimensional (2D) director field [ 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light-Actuated Liquid Crystal Elastomer Prepared by Projection Display

et al. 2021

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Soft materials with programmability have been widely used in drug delivery, tissue engineering, artificial muscles, biosensors, and related biomedical engineering applications. Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) can easily morph into three-dimensional (3D) shapes by external stimuli such as light, heat, and humidity. In order to program two-dimensional (2D) LCE sheets into desired 3D morphologies, it is critical to precisely control the molecular orientations in LCE. In this work, we propose a simple photopatterning method based on a maskless projection display system to create spatially varying molecular orientations in LCE films. By designing different synchronized rotations of the polarizer and projected images, diverse configurations ranging from individual to 2D lattice of topological defects are fabricated. The proposed technique significantly simplified the photopatterning procedure without using fabricated masks or waveplates. Shape transformations such as a cone and a truncated square pyramid, and functionality mimicking the responsive Mimosa Pudica are demonstrated in the fabricated LCE films. The programmable LCE morphing behaviors demonstrated in this work will open opportunities in soft robotics and smart functional devices.

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Liquid Crystal Polymer‐Based Soft Robots

Cited by 81 publications

References 137 publications

Robust and Reprocessable Artificial Muscles Based on Liquid Crystal Elastomers with Dynamic Thiourea Bonds

Robust and Reprocessable Artificial Muscles Based on Liquid Crystal Elastomers with Dynamic Thiourea Bonds

Soft Actuator Materials for Electrically Driven Haptic Interfaces

Light-Actuated Liquid Crystal Elastomer Prepared by Projection Display

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