Three-dimensional printing of functionally graded liquid crystal elastomer

Zijun Wang; Zhijian Wang; Yue Zheng; Qiguang He; Yang Wang; Shengqiang Cai

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abc0034

Three-dimensional printing of functionally graded liquid crystal elastomer

Sci Adv. 2020 Sep 25;6(39):eabc0034. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abc0034. Print 2020 Sep.

Authors

Zijun Wang¹, Zhijian Wang², Yue Zheng³, Qiguang He³, Yang Wang¹, Shengqiang Cai^{4

3}

Affiliations

¹ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
² Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. zhw097@eng.ucsd.edu shqcai@ucsd.edu.
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
⁴ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. zhw097@eng.ucsd.edu shqcai@ucsd.edu.

Abstract

As a promising actuating material, liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) has been intensively explored in building diverse active structures and devices. Recently, direct ink writing technique has been developed to print LCE structures with various geometries and actuation behaviors. Despite the advancement in printing LCE, it remains challenging to print three-dimensional (3D) LCE structures with graded properties. Here, we report a facile method to tailor both the actuation behavior and mechanical properties of printed LCE filaments by varying printing parameters. On the basis of the comprehensive processing-structure-property relationship, we propose a simple strategy to print functionally graded LCEs, which greatly increases the design space for creating active morphing structures. We further demonstrate mitigation of stress concentration near the interface between an actuatable LCE tube and a rigid glass plate through gradient printing. The strategy developed here will facilitate potential applications of LCEs in different fields.

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).