Search results for "light-responsive"
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Helix Inversion Controlled by Molecular Motors in Multistate Liquid Crystals.
2020
Unravelling the rules of molecular motion is a contemporary challenge that promises to support the development of responsive materials and is likely to enhance the understanding of functional motion. Advances in integrating light‐driven molecular motors in soft matter have led to the design and realization of chiral nematic (cholesteric) liquid crystals that can respond to light with modification of their helical pitch, and also with helix inversion. Under illumination, these chiral liquid crystals convert from one helical geometry to another. Here, a series of light‐driven molecular motors that feature a rich configurational landscape is presented, specifically which involves three stable …
Influence of a Crosslinker Containing an Azo Group on the Actuation Properties of a Photoactuating LCE System
2016
Photoactuating liquid crystalline elastomers (LCE) are promising candidates for an application as artificial muscles in microdevices. In this work, we demonstrate that by optimizing (1) the illumination conditions and (2) the mixture of azo monomer and azo crosslinker, thick films of an all-azo LCE can be prepared, which show a strong length change without bending during photoactuation. This becomes possible by working with white light (about 440 nm), whose absorption is low, leading to a large penetration depth. By adding an azo crosslinker to a previously prepared system, several improvements of the actuation properties—like a stronger photoactuation at lower operational temperatures—coul…