Photo-Actuation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Materials Doped with Visible Absorber Dyes under Quasi-Daylight.

Ban Qin,Jiaojiao Xu,Wenlong Yang,Xiuxiu Wang,Qiao-E Wang,Yachen Gao,Chensha Li,Xiangman Li

doi:10.3390/polym12010054

Abstract

We studied the effect of visible absorber dyes on the photo-actuation performances of liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) materials under quasi-daylight irradiation. The dye-doped LCE materials were prepared through infiltrating visible absorber dyes into a polysiloxane-based LCE matrix based on its solvent-swollen characteristic. They demonstrated well absorption properties in visible spectrum range and performed strong actuation upon the irradiation from quasi-daylight source, thus indicating that the presence of visible absorber dyes effectively sensitized the LCE materials to light irradiation since the light energy was absorbed by the dyes and then converted into heat to trigger the phase change of LCE matrix. The photo-actuation properties of dye-doped LCE materials with different visible absorber dyes, varied dye contents, and irradiation intensities were investigated. It was shown that the visible absorber dyes with different absorption bands created different photo-actuation performances of LCE materials, the one whose absorption band is near the intensity peak position of quasi-daylight spectrum created the optimum photo-actuation performance. The result disclosed a valuable light utilization way for photo-controlled LCE materials since it revealed that a light-absorbing dye, whose absorption band is in the high intensity region of light spectrum, is capable of effectively utilizing light energy to drive the actuation of LCE materials.

Highlights

Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) materials, as a type of fascinating smart polymer deformable materials, have been intensively studied since Finkelmann and co-workers reported in the 1990s [1,2,3,4,5].They are formed by linking liquid crystal (LC) mesogenic segments with covalently crosslinked polymer chains
The results indicated that the light-absorbing dyes with the absorption bands being in the high intensity region of light spectrum can more effectively utilize the light energy to drive the actuation of liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) materials, and were significant for the improvement of light energy utilization of photo-controlled LCE materials, while paving way for further development of the sun-light actuated LCE actuators
Suitable optical wavelength absorptions of dyes are needed in order to achieve the photoof dye-doped LCE materials

Summary

Introduction

Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) materials, as a type of fascinating smart polymer deformable materials, have been intensively studied since Finkelmann and co-workers reported in the 1990s [1,2,3,4,5].They are formed by linking liquid crystal (LC) mesogenic segments with covalently crosslinked polymer chains. Liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) materials, as a type of fascinating smart polymer deformable materials, have been intensively studied since Finkelmann and co-workers reported in the 1990s [1,2,3,4,5]. The coupling between the LC orientational order and the elasticity of polymer networks can bring large and reversible anisotropic shape changes of LCE materials under the applied external. 22of of networks can bring large and reversible anisotropic shape changes of LCE materials under the stimuli. The outstanding stimuli-responsitivities electric field [10], light [11], ions [12], moisture [13,14], and solvent [15], etc. The outstanding stimulienable them to enable be widely smart used actuators [16,17,18,19,20,21], biomimetic [22,23,24,25], artificial responsitivities themused to beinwidely in smart actuators [16,17,18,19,20,21],devices biomimetic devices [22–

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Conclusion