Photomechanical bending of linear azobenzene polymer

Abstract

In this work, photo-driven unimorph actuators are firstly fabricated by depositing azobenzene polymers onto silk fibroin films, eliminating the need for oriented azobenzene LCEs that have been used until now. The bending angle of the actuators can be well controlled either by changing the UV light intensity or by altering the thickness ratio of the two component layers. The bending deformation can be repeated many times without any fatigue.