Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Conference Paper 2016

Towards Photo-Induced Swimming: Actuation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer in Water

Spie2016

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are very promising smart materials that can be made sensitive to different external stimuli, such as heat, pH, humidity and light, by changing their chemical composition. In this paper we report the implementation of a nematically aligned LCE actuator able to undergo large light-induced deformations. We prove that this property is still present even when the actuator is submerged in fresh water. Thanks to the presence of azo-dye moieties, capable of going through a reversible trans-cis photo-isomerization, and by applying light with two different wavelengths we managed to control the bending of such actuator in the liquid environment. The reported results represent the first step towards swimming microdevices powered by light.

Author(s): cerretti, G. and Martella, D. and Zeng, H. and Parmeggiani, C. and Palagi, S. and Mark, A. G. and Melde, K. and Qiu, T. and Fischer, P., and Wiersma, D.
Book Title: Proc. of SPIE 9738
Pages: Laser 3D Manufacturing III, 97380T
Year: 2016
Month: April
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (inproceedings)
Address: Bellingham, Washington
DOI: 10.1117/12.2219855
State: Published
URL: https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/9738/1/Towards-photo-induced-swimming--actuation-of-liquid-crystalline-elastomer/10.1117/12.2219855.full?SSO=1&tab=ArticleLinkCited
Electronic Archiving: grant_archive

BibTex

@inproceedings{2016cerretti,
  title = {Towards Photo-Induced Swimming: Actuation of Liquid Crystalline  Elastomer in Water},
  booktitle = {Proc. of SPIE 9738},
  abstract = {Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are very promising smart materials that can be made sensitive to different external stimuli, such as heat, pH, humidity and light, by changing their chemical composition. In this paper we report the implementation of a nematically aligned LCE actuator able to undergo large light-induced deformations. We prove that this property is still present even when the actuator is submerged in fresh water. Thanks to the presence of azo-dye moieties, capable of going through a reversible trans-cis photo-isomerization, and by applying light with two different wavelengths we managed to control the bending of such actuator in the liquid environment. The reported results 
  represent the first step towards swimming microdevices powered by light.},
  pages = {Laser 3D Manufacturing III, 97380T},
  address = {Bellingham, Washington},
  month = apr,
  year = {2016},
  slug = {2016cerretti},
  author = {cerretti, G. and Martella, D. and Zeng, H. and Parmeggiani, C. and Palagi, S. and Mark, A. G. and Melde, K. and Qiu, T. and Fischer, P. and Wiersma, D.},
  url = {https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/9738/1/Towards-photo-induced-swimming--actuation-of-liquid-crystalline-elastomer/10.1117/12.2219855.full?SSO=1&tab=ArticleLinkCited},
  month_numeric = {4}
}