Microactuators from a main-chain liquid crystalline elastomer via thiol–ene “click” chemistry

Recently it has been described that liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) particles of the side-chain type can be prepared in microfluidic devices. Here we present the preparation of micrometer-sized LCE particles of the main-chain type by thiol–ene chemistry. The LCE particles are UV-crosslinked via thiol–ene click chemistry of the nematic monomer, carrying terminal thiol and ene groups, and non-mesogenic tetrathiol and tetraene crosslinkers. The preparation of the LCE particles with a microfluidic device by a continuous “on the fly” technique allows their fast processing with an irradiation time of less than 2 seconds. The resulting particles undergo a temperature-driven volume change up to …