Issue 37, 2021

Light-driven autonomous self-oscillation of a liquid-crystalline polymer bimorph actuator

Abstract

Oscillation, widely existing in nature, is of vital importance for human society (e.g., energy utilization, signal transmission and communication), but preparing soft self-oscillators with facile accessibility, fatigue resistance, precise and noncontact control in multi-way tunable approaches is still desirable and challenging. Here, we report the fabrication of a light-driven tunable self-oscillator based on bimorph films of commercial Kapton and photoactive liquid-crystalline polymers with physical crosslinking sites, which can be remotely powered under constant irradiation of UV/visible light. The photomechanical behaviors of the bimorph actuators are acquired from the photoinduced changes in the volume of the photoactive polymer, and both the cis-azobenzene content and the transcis dynamic isomerization process are determinant factors. By combining the self-shadowing effect and inertia effect of the actuator, self-sustained oscillation is obtained. In nature, only leaves with particular size and weight could sway as appropriate strong wind blows from a specific direction, which inspires us to tune the oscillating frequency and amplitude with multiple approaches, like light intensity/wavelength (from UV to visible light), irradiated position, and size/weight of the oscillator for regulating the inertia effect. Such autonomously light-fueled self-oscillators are found to have potential applications in detecting charges and signal transmission.

Graphical abstract: Light-driven autonomous self-oscillation of a liquid-crystalline polymer bimorph actuator

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Jun 2021
Accepted
06 Aug 2021
First published
07 Aug 2021

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 12573-12580

Light-driven autonomous self-oscillation of a liquid-crystalline polymer bimorph actuator

J. Wang, T. Song, Y. Zhang, J. Liu, M. Yu and H. Yu, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021, 9, 12573 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC02891J

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