Issue 5, 2020

Patterned, morphing composites via maskless photo-click lithography

Abstract

Morphing materials, also known as smart materials are attracting increasing attention as sensors, actuators and in soft robotic applications. In this work bilayered morphing composites were created by exploiting the thiol–ene photoclick reaction via maskless digital light processing (DLP). This technique allows for gradients and patterns of near infrared (nIR)-triggered materials to be efficiently crosslinked to substrates, with suitable interfacial adhesion to realise complex morphing. Photo-thermally responsive composites are produced by DLP patterning of reduced graphene oxide-filled chitosan-methacrylamide (rGO-chitosan-MA) on thiolated polydimethylsiloxane substrates via thiol–ene photoclick reaction. Morphing composites with parallel striped patterns and box-like hinges were printed via DLP to realise self-rolling and self-folding behaviours. Bilayered structures, with gradient rGO-chitosan-MA thicknesses (2–8 μm), were produced by controlling the light intensity from the DLP device. These gradient bilayered structures enable photothermal-triggered gradient bending and morphing exemplified here by a “walking worm” and a kirigami-inspired “opening flower”. Thermo-mechanical calculations were performed to estimate bending angles, and finite element analysis applied to simulate self-folding and bending. The difference between simulation and measurements is in the range 0.4–7.6%, giving confidence to the assumptions and simplifications applied in design.

Graphical abstract: Patterned, morphing composites via maskless photo-click lithography

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Oct 2019
Accepted
13 Dec 2019
First published
07 Jan 2020

Soft Matter, 2020,16, 1270-1278

Patterned, morphing composites via maskless photo-click lithography

S. Lyu, F. Zheng, J. A. Aguilar-Tadeo, F. Lin, R. Wu, B. Derby, I. A. Kinloch, C. Soutis, M. Gresil and J. J. Blaker, Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 1270 DOI: 10.1039/C9SM02056J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements