pH-driven artificial hybrid architectures as model systems for directed movement and transport
Final Report Abstract
Materials with multiple states, when exposed simultaneously to two stimuli, can dynamically shift their response. This enables them to adapt their behavior to the same stimulus depending on the environmental context. Here we present a photoresponsive multiphase liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) system which can change the motion it exhibits in response to light depending on the temperature. In doing so it can change the extent and the trajectory of both the photoresponse and the thermal recovery. The shape of the response landscape of the multiphase LCE as well as how light and temperature interact with the material determine the adaptability to the two stimuli. This system represents a paradigm shift, demonstrating how stimuli-responsive materials can exhibit multiple responses to a single stimulus, moving beyond traditional input-output models. The initial goal of this project was to understand and develop materials capable of adapting and controlling their environment particularly to control motion. To achieve this the abovedescribed multiphase photo responsive liquid crystalline elastomer was developed. This shift from the proposed pH actuated hybrid structures was due to current research focus of the host lab. The developed material exhibited freely programmable motion both during the irradiation as well as the thermal recovery. By using an end-on mesogenic monomer and an azobenzene based crosslinker the material we can produce materials exhibiting a chevron Smectic C (cSmC) phase which transitions into a Smectic A (SmA) phase upon heating. Subsequent heating then disorders the material to an isotropic (Iso) phase. Through magnetic alignment the direction of the mesogens (and therefore the direction of the phase dependent expansion and contraction) and through soft-lithography the geometry of the architecture can be programmed freely.
Publications
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Flexible fluid-based encapsulation platform for water-sensitive materials. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(34).
Lemaire, Baptiste; Yu, Yanhao; Molinari, Nicola; Wu, Haichao; Goodwin, Zachary A. H.; Stricker, Friedrich; Kozinsky, Boris & Aizenberg, Joanna
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Programming liquid crystal elastomers for multistep ambidirectional deformability. Science, 386(6726), 1161-1168.
Yao, Yuxing; Wilborn, Atalaya Milan; Lemaire, Baptiste; Trigka, Foteini; Stricker, Friedrich; Weible, Alan H.; Li, Shucong; Bennett, Robert K. A.; Cheung, Tung Chun; Grinthal, Alison; Zhernenkov, Mikhail; Freychet, Guillaume; Wąsik, Patryk; Kozinsky, Boris; Lerch, Michael M.; Wang, Xiaoguang & Aizenberg, Joanna
