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Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers
The need for mechanical manipulation during the curing of conventional liquid crystal elastomers diminishes their applicability in the field of shape-programmable soft materials and future applications in additive manufacturing. Here we report on polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers, novel co...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059788/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27713478 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13140 |
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author | Rešetič, Andraž Milavec, Jerneja Zupančič, Blaž Domenici, Valentina Zalar, Boštjan |
author_facet | Rešetič, Andraž Milavec, Jerneja Zupančič, Blaž Domenici, Valentina Zalar, Boštjan |
author_sort | Rešetič, Andraž |
collection | PubMed |
description | The need for mechanical manipulation during the curing of conventional liquid crystal elastomers diminishes their applicability in the field of shape-programmable soft materials and future applications in additive manufacturing. Here we report on polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers, novel composite materials that eliminate this difficulty. Their thermal shape memory anisotropy is imprinted by curing in external magnetic field, providing for conventional moulding of macroscopically sized soft, thermomechanically active elastic objects of general shapes. The binary soft-soft composition of isotropic elastomer matrix, filled with freeze-fracture-fabricated, oriented liquid crystal elastomer microparticles as colloidal inclusions, allows for fine-tuning of thermal morphing behaviour. This is accomplished by adjusting the concentration, spatial distribution and orientation of microparticles or using blends of microparticles with different thermomechanical characteristics. We demonstrate that any Gaussian thermomechanical deformation mode (bend, cup, saddle, left and right twist) of a planar sample, as well as beat-like actuation, is attainable with bilayer microparticle configurations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5059788 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50597882016-10-26 Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers Rešetič, Andraž Milavec, Jerneja Zupančič, Blaž Domenici, Valentina Zalar, Boštjan Nat Commun Article The need for mechanical manipulation during the curing of conventional liquid crystal elastomers diminishes their applicability in the field of shape-programmable soft materials and future applications in additive manufacturing. Here we report on polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers, novel composite materials that eliminate this difficulty. Their thermal shape memory anisotropy is imprinted by curing in external magnetic field, providing for conventional moulding of macroscopically sized soft, thermomechanically active elastic objects of general shapes. The binary soft-soft composition of isotropic elastomer matrix, filled with freeze-fracture-fabricated, oriented liquid crystal elastomer microparticles as colloidal inclusions, allows for fine-tuning of thermal morphing behaviour. This is accomplished by adjusting the concentration, spatial distribution and orientation of microparticles or using blends of microparticles with different thermomechanical characteristics. We demonstrate that any Gaussian thermomechanical deformation mode (bend, cup, saddle, left and right twist) of a planar sample, as well as beat-like actuation, is attainable with bilayer microparticle configurations. Nature Publishing Group 2016-10-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5059788/ /pubmed/27713478 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13140 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Rešetič, Andraž Milavec, Jerneja Zupančič, Blaž Domenici, Valentina Zalar, Boštjan Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
title | Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
title_full | Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
title_fullStr | Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
title_full_unstemmed | Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
title_short | Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
title_sort | polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5059788/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27713478 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13140 |
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