Journal
MACROMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
Volume 210, Issue 20, Pages 1671-1677Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/macp.200900308
Keywords
actuator; elastomers; films; liquid crystal; microsystems; photo-crosslinking
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Funding
- Research Training Networks Functional Liquid-Crystalline Elastomers (FULCE) [HPRN-CT-2002-00169]
- Fonds der Chemischen Industrie
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Photo-crosslinkable side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers (LCPs) containing photoreactive benzophenone cores are synthesized in order to obtain their corresponding side-chain liquid-crystalline elastomers (LCEs). This strategic synthesis allows thin elastomeric films and their integration into microsystems for actuators and micromachines to be obtained. As an example of this principle, a gripper was developed. The position of its arms can be changed by applying voltages from 1.5 to 3.5 V at different rates. Small changes in the liquid-crystalline elastomer film cause strains of up to 150% in the microdevice and the capacity to move up to 400 times its own mass due to the nematic-to-isotropic transformation.
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