Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH, 45433, USA.
Azimuth Corporation, 4027 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Beavercreek, OH, 45431, USA.
Nat Commun. 2018 Jun 28;9(1):2531. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04911-4.
Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft, anisotropic materials that exhibit large shape transformations when subjected to various stimuli. Here we demonstrate a facile approach to enhance the out-of-plane work capacity of these materials by an order of magnitude, to nearly 20 J/kg. The enhancement in force output is enabled by the development of a room temperature polymerizable composition used both to prepare individual films, organized via directed self-assembly to retain arrays of topological defect profiles, as well as act as an adhesive to combine the LCE layers. The material actuator is shown to displace a load >2500× heavier than its own weight nearly 0.5 mm.
液晶弹性体（LCEs）是柔软的各向异性材料，当受到各种刺激时会发生大的形状转变。在这里，我们展示了一种简单的方法，可以将这些材料的面外工作能力提高一个数量级，达到近 20 J/kg。通过开发一种可在室温下聚合的组合物来实现力输出的增强，该组合物既用于制备单个薄膜，通过定向自组装来保留拓扑缺陷轮廓的阵列，又用作将 LCE 层结合在一起的粘合剂。所制备的材料致动器可以移动比其自身重量重 2500 倍以上的负载，位移近 0.5 毫米。
