4D printing through vat photopolymerization of two-stage UV-curable liquid crystal elastomers.

ABSTRACT: Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) offer significant promise as soft actuator materials, but their potential has not yet been fully explored for 4D printing applications. Most existing studies rely on extrusion-based printing methods, which offer limited resolution and impose constraints on fabricating intricate, free-standing structures. Moreover, it remains a significant challenge to design and spatially control liquid crystal orientation within complex 3D structures to achieve desired shape transformations. To address these challenges, this study introduces a 4D printing strategy that combines two-stage UV-curable LCEs with vat photopolymerization-based 3D printing, such as digital light processing (DLP). The LCE can be initially printed into complex geometries with high precision, follow

SUBMITTER: Jiang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12910083 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature