New shape-changing polymer developed | ScienceDaily

The polymer is made from a material called liquid crystal elastomer (LCE), a soft, rubber-like material that can be stimulated by external forces such as light or heat and is versatile enough to move in multiple directions. .

Its behavior is similar to the movement of animals in nature, including the ability to twist, tilt left and right, contract and expand, said study co-author Xiaoguang Wang, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at The Ohio State University.

“Liquid crystal is a material with very unique properties and properties that are not typically achieved with other materials,” Wang said. “They’re so much fun to work with.”

The new polymer’s ability to change shape could be used to create soft robots or artificial muscles, as well as other high-tech devices in medicine and other fields.

Today, liquid crystals are most commonly used in TV and mobile phone displays, but these materials often degrade over time. But as LEDs expand, many researchers are focusing on developing new applications for liquid crystals.

Unlike traditional materials that can only bend in one direction or require multiple components to create complex shapes, the team’s polymer is a single component that can twist in both directions. Wang said this property has to do with how the material is exposed to temperature changes to control the molecular phases of the polymer.

“Liquid crystals have an orientation order, which means they can self-align,” he said. “When we heat LCEs, they transform into different phases, causing changes in their structure and properties.”

This means that molecules (tiny building blocks of matter) that were once fixed in place can be directed to rearrange themselves in ways that allow for greater flexibility. Wang said it might also make the material easier to manufacture.

The research was recently published in the journal science.

If scaled up, the polymers in this study could advance multiple scientific fields and technologies, including controlled drug delivery systems, biosensor devices, and aids in the manipulation of complex motion in next-generation soft robots.

Alan Weible, a co-author of the study and a graduate student in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State, said one of the study’s most important findings revealed the three stages that materials go through as temperature changes. During these stages, molecules transform and self-assemble into different configurations.

“These phases were one of the key factors we optimized to allow bidirectional shape deformation of the material,” he said. In terms of size, the study further shows that the material can be scaled up or down to fit almost any need.

“Our paper opens up a new direction for people to start synthesizing other multiphase materials,” Wang said.

The researchers note that with future advances in computing, their polymer could eventually become a useful tool for handling delicate situations, such as those that require precise engineering of artificial muscles and joints or upgrading soft nanorobots required for complex surgeries.

“In the next few years, we plan to develop new applications and hope to enter the biomedical field,” Weible said. “Based on these results, we can explore a lot more.”

This work was supported by the Department of Energy and the Center for Materials Research Science and Engineering at Harvard University.

Other co-authors include Yuxing Yao, Shucong Li, Atalaya Milan Wilborn, Friedrich Stricker, Joanna Aizenberg, Baptiste Lemaire, Robert KA Bennett, Tung Chun Cheung, and Alison Grinthal of Harvard University; Foteini Trigka and Michael M. Lerch of the University of Groningen; Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, and Patryk Wasik from Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Boris Kozinsky from Bosch Research.