A readily programmable, fully reversible shape-switching material.

ABSTRACT: Liquid crystalline (LC) elastomers (LCEs) enable large-scale reversible shape changes in polymeric materials; however, they require intensive, irreversible programming approaches in order to facilitate controllable actuation. We have implemented photoinduced dynamic covalent chemistry (DCC) that chemically anneals the LCE toward an applied equilibrium only when and where the light-activated DCC is on. By using light as the stimulus that enables programming, the dynamic bond exchange is orthogonal to LC phase behavior, enabling the LCE to be annealed in any LC phase or in the isotropic phase with various manifestations of this capability explored here. In a photopolymerizable LCE network, we report the synthesis, characterization, and exploitation of readily shape-programmable DCC-functiona

SUBMITTER: McBride MK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6108565 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature