Zhang Yubai, Wang Zhenhua, Yang Yang, Chen Qiaomei, Qian Xiaojie, Wu Yahe, Liang Huan, Xu Yanshuang, Wei Yen, Ji Yan
MOE Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Department of Chemistry, Center for Nanotechnology and Institute of Biomedical Technology, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Chung-Li 32023, Taiwan, China.
Sci Adv. 2020 Feb 28;6(9):eaay8606. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aay8606. eCollection 2020 Feb.
Liquid-crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are excellent soft actuator materials for a wide range of applications, especially the blooming area of soft robotics. For entirely soft LCE robots to exhibit high dexterity and complicated performance, several components are typically required to be integrated together in one single robot body. Here, we show that seamless multicomponent/multimaterial three-dimensional (3D) LCE robots can be created via simultaneously welding and aligning LCE materials with different chemical compositions and physical properties without other additives such as tapes and glues (just like metal welding). Both welding and aligning of the LCE materials rely on thermal polymerization of preformed LCE films with reactive acrylate groups. This method provides an easy way to robustly fabricate arbitrary 3D desirable geometries with strongly stable reversible actuations and multifunctionalities, which greatly enlarges and benefits the future applications and manufacturing of LCE soft robots.
液晶弹性体（LCEs）是用于广泛应用的优秀软致动器材料，特别是在软机器人技术蓬勃发展的领域。对于完全柔软的LCE机器人要展现出高灵活性和复杂性能，通常需要将几个组件集成在一个单一的机器人主体中。在此，我们展示了无缝多组分/多材料三维（3D）LCE机器人可以通过同时焊接和对齐具有不同化学成分和物理性质的LCE材料来创建，无需使用胶带和胶水等其他添加剂（就像金属焊接一样）。LCE材料的焊接和对齐都依赖于具有反应性丙烯酸酯基团的预制LCE薄膜的热聚合。这种方法提供了一种简单的方式来稳健地制造具有强烈稳定的可逆致动和多功能性的任意3D理想几何形状，这极大地扩展并有利于LCE软机器人的未来应用和制造。
