Humidity-responsive liquid crystalline polymer actuators with an asymmetry in the molecular trigger that bend, fold, and curl

Laurens T de Haan; Julien M N Verjans; Dirk J Broer; Cees W M Bastiaansen; Albertus P H J Schenning

doi:10.1021/ja505475x

Humidity-responsive liquid crystalline polymer actuators with an asymmetry in the molecular trigger that bend, fold, and curl

J Am Chem Soc. 2014 Jul 30;136(30):10585-8. doi: 10.1021/ja505475x. Epub 2014 Jul 17.

Authors

Laurens T de Haan¹, Julien M N Verjans, Dirk J Broer, Cees W M Bastiaansen, Albertus P H J Schenning

Affiliation

¹ Functional Organic Materials and Devices, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, and Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology , Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

PMID: 25022765
DOI: 10.1021/ja505475x

Abstract

We show a versatile method for the preparation of a variety of humidity-responsive actuators based on a single sheet of a hydrogen-bonded, uniaxially aligned liquid crystal polymer network. In this approach, the asymmetry in the molecular trigger in the anisotropic polymer film plays a dominant role leading to programmed deformation events. The material is locally treated with a potassium hydroxide solution to create the asymmetry in the responsiveness toward humidity, which allows to prepare actuators that bend, fold, or curl.