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Feng W, He Q, Zhang L. Embedded Physical Intelligence in Liquid Crystalline Polymer Actuators and Robots. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2024:e2312313. [PMID: 38375751 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202312313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Revised: 01/27/2024] [Indexed: 02/21/2024]
Abstract
Responsive materials possess the inherent capacity to autonomously sense and respond to various external stimuli, demonstrating physical intelligence. Among the diverse array of responsive materials, liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) stand out for their remarkable reversible stimuli-responsive shape-morphing properties and their potential for creating soft robots. While numerous reviews have extensively detailed the progress in developing LCP-based actuators and robots, there exists a need for comprehensive summaries that elucidate the underlying principles governing actuation and how physical intelligence is embedded within these systems. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in developing actuators and robots endowed with physical intelligence using LCPs. This review is structured around the stimulus conditions and categorizes the studies involving responsive LCPs based on the fundamental control and stimulation logic and approach. Specifically, three main categories are examined: systems that respond to changing stimuli, those operating under constant stimuli, and those equip with learning and logic control capabilities. Furthermore, the persisting challenges that need to be addressed are outlined and discuss the future avenues of research in this dynamic field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Feng
- Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Qiguang He
- Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
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Peng X, Wu S, Sun X, Yue L, Montgomery SM, Demoly F, Zhou K, Zhao RR, Qi HJ. 4D Printing of Freestanding Liquid Crystal Elastomers via Hybrid Additive Manufacturing. ADVANCED MATERIALS (DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA.) 2022; 34:e2204890. [PMID: 35962737 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202204890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) are appealing candidates among active materials for 4D printing, due to their reversible, programmable and rapid actuation capabilities. Recent progress has been made on direct ink writing (DIW) or Digital Light Processing (DLP) to print LCEs with certain actuation. However, it remains a challenge to achieve complicated structures, such as spatial lattices with large actuation, due to the limitation of printing LCEs on the build platform or the previous layer. Herein, a novel method to 4D print freestanding LCEs on-the-fly by using laser-assisted DIW with an actuation strain up to -40% is proposed. This process is further hybridized with the DLP method for optional structural or removable supports to create active 3D architectures in a one-step additive process. Various objects, including hybrid active lattices, active tensegrity, an actuator with tunable stability, and 3D spatial LCE lattices, can be additively fabricated. The combination of DIW-printed functionally freestanding LCEs with the DLP-printed supporting structures thus provides new design freedom and fabrication capability for applications including soft robotics, smart structures, active metamaterials, and smart wearable devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xirui Peng
- The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- Renewable Bioproduct Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
| | - Shuai Wu
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Xiaohao Sun
- The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
| | - Liang Yue
- The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
| | - S Macrae Montgomery
- The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
| | - Frédéric Demoly
- ICB UMR 6303 CNRS, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, UTBM, Belfort, 90010, France
| | - Kun Zhou
- Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore
| | - Ruike Renee Zhao
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - H Jerry Qi
- The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- Renewable Bioproduct Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
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Molecular tilting effect on Smectic liquid crystal sub-phase stability from its retardation switching behavior. J Mol Liq 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molliq.2017.12.117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Cohen O, Ferris AJ, Adkins R, Lemieux RP, Avnir D, Gelman D, Rosenblatt C. Chiral organosilica particles and their use as inducers of conformational deracemization of liquid crystal phases. Chem Phys Lett 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2018.02.050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Nemitz IR, Lacaze E, Rosenblatt C. Electroclinic effect in a chiral paranematic liquid-crystal layer above the bulk nematic-to-isotropic transition temperature. Phys Rev E 2016; 93:022701. [PMID: 26986382 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.93.022701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Electroclinic measurements are reported for two chiral liquid crystals above their bulk chiral isotropic-nematic phase transition temperatures. It is found that an applied electric field E induces a rotation θ [∝Ε] of the director in the very thin paranematic layers that are induced by the cell's two planar-aligning substrates. The magnitude of the electroclinic coefficient dθ/dE close to the transition temperature is comparable to that of a bulk chiral nematic, as well as to that of a parasmectic region above a bulk isotropic-to-chiral smectic-A phase. However, dθ/dE in the paranematic layer varies much more slowly with temperature than in the parasmectic phase, and its relaxation time is slower by more than three orders of magnitude than that of the bulk chiral nematic electroclinic effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian R Nemitz
- Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
- CNRS UMR 7588, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (INSP), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
- UPMC Université Paris VI, UMR 7588, Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (INSP), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Emmanuelle Lacaze
- CNRS UMR 7588, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (INSP), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
- UPMC Université Paris VI, UMR 7588, Institut des NanoSciences de Paris (INSP), 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
| | - Charles Rosenblatt
- Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA
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Greco C, Ferrarini A. Electroclinic effect in nematic liquid crystals: the role of molecular and environmental chirality. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2013; 87:060501. [PMID: 23848613 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.87.060501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2013] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
The electroclinic (EC) effect is the tilt of the optical axis of a liquid crystal in the plane perpendicular to an applied electric field. Chirality plays a key role for its emergence. Based on the molecular and phase symmetry we derive a molecular expression for the EC coefficient, the material property that quantifies the linear coupling between tilt and electric field, in nematic liquid crystals. Modeling the relevant molecular properties (shape, electric dipole moment, and polarizability) with atomic resolution, we calculate the EC coefficient for prototype molecular structures. We demonstrate that molecular chirality, needed for the occurrence of the EC effect in nematics with a uniform director, is not a necessary requirement in the presence of a twisted director. Our results show that in the latter case conformational deracemization, invoked to explain recent experiments, is not the only mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Greco
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova, via Marzolo 1, I-35131 Padova, Italy
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Basu R, Petschek RG, Rosenblatt C. Nematic electroclinic effect in a carbon-nanotube-doped achiral liquid crystal. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2011; 83:041707. [PMID: 21599186 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.83.041707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2011] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
A small quantity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) dispersed in an achiral liquid crystal (LC) matrix transmits chirality a short distance into the LC, and the LC+CNT mixture is found to exhibit a bulklike electroclinic effect in the nematic phase. The magnitude of the effect increases rapidly on cooling, showing significant pretransitional behavior on approaching the nematic-smectic-A transition temperature (T(NA)) from above. The variation of the electroclinic coefficient is negligible over the frequency range 100 Hz to 100 kHz in the in the nematic phase well above T(NA) and in the smectic-A phase, whereas the electroclinic coefficient falls off significantly with increasing frequency just above T(NA).
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajratan Basu
- Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7079, USA
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Ferjani S, Choi Y, Pendery J, Petschek RG, Rosenblatt C. Mechanically generated surface chirality at the nanoscale. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2010; 104:257801. [PMID: 20867414 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.104.257801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2009] [Revised: 05/27/2010] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
A substrate coated with an achiral polyimide alignment layer was scribed bidirectionally with the stylus of an atomic force microscope to create an easy axis for liquid crystal orientation. The resulting noncentrosymmetric topography resulted in a chiral surface that manifests itself at the molecular level. To show this unambiguously, a planar-aligned negative dielectric aniostropy achiral nematic liquid crystal was placed in contact with the surface and subjected to an electric field E. The nematic director was found to undergo an azimuthal rotation approximately linear in E. This so-called "surface electroclinic effect" is a signature of surface chirality and was not observed when the polyimide was treated for a centrosymmetric topography, and therefore was nonchiral.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sameh Ferjani
- Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7079, USA
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Dierking I, Rudquist P, Komitov L, Lagerwall ST, Steble B. Investigations on the Flexoelectric and Electroclinic Effect in a Cholesteric Phase with Twist Inversion. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2006. [DOI: 10.1080/10587259708046987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- I. Dierking
- a Institut Mr Physkalische Chemie der Technischen Universität Clausthal , Amoid-Sommerferd-Str.4, D38678 , Clausthal-Zellerfeld , Germany
| | - P. Rudquist
- b Liquid Crystal Grow, Department of Physics , Chalmers Unkeislty of Technology , S-41296 , Göteborg , Sweden
| | - L. Komitov
- b Liquid Crystal Grow, Department of Physics , Chalmers Unkeislty of Technology , S-41296 , Göteborg , Sweden
| | - S. T. Lagerwall
- b Liquid Crystal Grow, Department of Physics , Chalmers Unkeislty of Technology , S-41296 , Göteborg , Sweden
| | - B. Steble
- b Liquid Crystal Grow, Department of Physics , Chalmers Unkeislty of Technology , S-41296 , Göteborg , Sweden
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Ismaïli M, Bougrioua F, Isaert N, Legrand C, Nguyen HT. Dielectric properties of twist grain boundary phases: influence of the anchoring and the distance between grain boundaries. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2002; 65:011701. [PMID: 11800701 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.65.011701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2001] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
The dielectric properties of the twist grain boundaries TGB(A) and TGB(C) of liquid crystal phases differ from the smectic-A and smectic-C phase ones: a theoretical model confirmed by experimental results shows that the Goldstone mode of the TGB(C) phase and the soft mode of the TGB(A) phase are strongly reduced. This behavior is due to elastic strain, which is connected to two parameters: the anchoring at the grain boundaries and the distance between the grain boundaries. It is shown quantitatively that a relatively flexible anchoring in the TGB(A) phase becomes rigid in the TGB(C) one. The relaxation frequencies of these modes allow analysis of the rotational viscosity variations.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Ismaïli
- Laboratoire de Dynamique et Structure des Matériaux Moléculaires, ESA CNRS 8024, Université de Lille 1, F-59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.
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Zubia J, Ecenarro JE. Nematic Electroclinic Effect in Mixtures. INT J POLYM MATER PO 2000. [DOI: 10.1080/00914030008035052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Kangas E, Li JF, Rosenblatt C. Dynamics of helix deformation in a chiral smectic-C* liquid crystal: Optical experiments and modeling. PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL PHYSICS, PLASMAS, FLUIDS, AND RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS 1996; 53:696-700. [PMID: 9964301 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.53.696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
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Crandall KA, Tripathi S, Rosenblatt C. Surface-mediated electroclinic effect in a chiral nematic liquid crystal. PHYSICAL REVIEW. A, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, AND OPTICAL PHYSICS 1992; 46:R715-R718. [PMID: 9908230 DOI: 10.1103/physreva.46.r715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/11/2023]
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Lu MH, Crandall KA, Rosenblatt C. Polarization-induced renormalization of the B1 elastic modulus in a ferroelectric liquid crystal. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 1992; 68:3575-3578. [PMID: 10045739 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.68.3575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
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Tripathi S, Lu MH, Terentjev EM, Petschek RG, Rosenblatt C. Surface-induced polarization at a chiral-nematic-substrate interface. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 1991; 67:3400-3403. [PMID: 10044724 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.67.3400] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
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Etxebarria J, Zubia J. Electroclinic effect in a liquid crystal with chiral nematic and smectic-A phases. PHYSICAL REVIEW. A, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, AND OPTICAL PHYSICS 1991; 44:6626-6631. [PMID: 9905790 DOI: 10.1103/physreva.44.6626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
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Lee SD, Patel JS, Goodby JW. Nature of the surface-induced order above the direct isotropic to chiral-smectic-A transition. PHYSICAL REVIEW. A, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, AND OPTICAL PHYSICS 1991; 44:2749-2751. [PMID: 9906261 DOI: 10.1103/physreva.44.2749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
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Li Z, Ambigapathy R, Petschek RG, Rosenblatt C. Dynamics of the nematic-electroclinic effect. PHYSICAL REVIEW. A, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, AND OPTICAL PHYSICS 1991; 43:7109-7112. [PMID: 9905076 DOI: 10.1103/physreva.43.7109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
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Li Z, Akins RB, DiLisi GA, Rosenblatt C, Petschek RG. Anomaly in the dynamic behavior of the electroclinic effect below the nematic-smectic-A phase transition. PHYSICAL REVIEW. A, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, AND OPTICAL PHYSICS 1991; 43:852-857. [PMID: 9905102 DOI: 10.1103/physreva.43.852] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
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