Muscular MEMS—the engineering of liquid crystal elastomer actuators

Petsch, Sebastian; Khatri, Bilal; Schuhladen, Stefan; Köbele, Luis; Rix, R.; Zentel, Rudolf; Zappe, Hans

doi:10.1088/0964-1726/25/8/085010

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(48 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, a soft, multiple‐gait walker can squeeze into confined spaces, and a soft‐robotic arm can pick up fragile objects or act in a “human‐friendly” manner, which would be beyond the capabilities of rigid robots. As for the second challenge—miniaturization—the straightforward rescaling of the actuators, sensors, control circuitry, and power sources is possible down to centimeters, but is very difficult, if not impossible, on the millimeter scale and below . An alternative approach is to fuel the system from outside and use a stimuli‐responsive actuator, to initiate the robotic motion and task execution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light Robots: Bridging the Gap between Microrobotics and Photomechanics in Soft Materials

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For decades, roboticists have focused their efforts on rigid systems that enable programmable, automated action, and sophisticated control with maximal movement precision and speed. Meanwhile, material scientists have sought compounds and fabrication strategies to devise polymeric actuators that are small, soft, adaptive, and stimuli-responsive. Merging these two fields has given birth to a new class of devices-soft microrobots that, by combining concepts from microrobotics and stimuli-responsive materials research, provide several advantages in a miniature form: external, remotely controllable power supply, adaptive motion, and human-friendly interaction, with device design and action often inspired by biological systems. Herein, recent progress in soft microrobotics is highlighted based on light-responsive liquid-crystal elastomers and polymer networks, focusing on photomobile devices such as walkers, swimmers, and mechanical oscillators, which may ultimately lead to flying microrobots. Finally, self-regulated actuation is proposed as a new pathway toward fully autonomous, intelligent light robots of the future.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light Robots: Bridging the Gap between Microrobotics and Photomechanics in Soft Materials

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To induce the shape change of the LCE actuators directly, electrically heatable LCEs with temperature feedback are under investigation. [ 38–40 ] In addition, illumination to induce the shape change is often applied. [ 41–44 ] Topics are here to induce bending or to avoid it (homogeneous shrinking) and the use of visible light.…”

Section: Liquid Crystalline Polymersmentioning

confidence: 99%

LC‐Polymers and Smectic Phases with Special Substructures/Nanophase Segregation

Zentel

2021

Macro Chemistry & Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Liquid crystalline (LC) polymers find still a lot of interest, whereby the focus is—at present—on LC‐elastomers with different phases and their application for mechanical actuation. While the LC‐phases in LC‐polymers can—generally—be well described in analogy to their low molar mass counterparts, some special properties became evident for some systems with smectic phases. They are related to the modulation of the nanophase segregation within the smectic layers and include often the formation of sublayers consisting of poorly compatible parts of the polymer like bulky (=non mesogenic) units, ionic groups, or poorly miscible parts of the main chain (e.g., polysiloxanes). Such a behavior can be found for semiflexible LC‐main chain polymers and for LC‐side chain polymers. Here the authors i) describe polymers for which such a modification of the smectic structure is observed, ii) discuss the origin of the deviation, and iii) describe possible application for the design of functional materials. The formation of the substructures can allow, for example, a mixing of the LC‐polymers with other polymers, which have a good affinity to the second sublayer. It also allows it to separate, to some extent, the network structure from the packing of the mesogens in LC‐polysiloxanes.

show abstract

“…Microfabrication and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques, can help reach the size scale, and controlled features for a more complex in vivo environment [ 73 ]. Buguin and Keller created micron-sized responsive pillars based on monodomain nematic LCE using the soft lithography technique [ 74 ].…”

Section: Toward Biological Applications Of Lcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Crystal Elastomers—A Path to Biocompatible and Biodegradable 3D-LCE Scaffolds for Tissue Regeneration

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The development of appropriate materials that can make breakthroughs in tissue engineering has long been pursued by the scientific community. Several types of material have been long tested and re-designed for this purpose. At the same time, liquid crystals (LCs) have captivated the scientific community since their discovery in 1888 and soon after were thought to be, in combination with polymers, artificial muscles. Within the past decade liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) have been attracting increasing interest for their use as smart advanced materials for biological applications. Here, we examine how LCEs can potentially be used as dynamic substrates for culturing cells, moving away from the classical two-dimensional cell-culture nature. We also briefly discuss the integration of a few technologies for the preparation of more sophisticated LCE-composite scaffolds for more dynamic biomaterials. The anisotropic properties of LCEs can be used not only to promote cell attachment and the proliferation of cells, but also to promote cell alignment under LCE-stimulated deformation. 3D LCEs are ideal materials for new insights to simulate and study the development of tissues and the complex interplay between cells.

show abstract

Muscular MEMS—the engineering of liquid crystal elastomer actuators

Cited by 28 publications

References 41 publications

Light Robots: Bridging the Gap between Microrobotics and Photomechanics in Soft Materials

Light Robots: Bridging the Gap between Microrobotics and Photomechanics in Soft Materials

LC‐Polymers and Smectic Phases with Special Substructures/Nanophase Segregation

Liquid Crystal Elastomers—A Path to Biocompatible and Biodegradable 3D-LCE Scaffolds for Tissue Regeneration

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About