Issue 11, 2020

Unravelling humidity-gated, temperature responsive bilayer actuators

Abstract

By spraying liquid crystal mixtures onto stretched polyamide 6 (PA6) substrates, dual-responsive heat/humidity bilayer actuators are generated. The oriented PA6 guides the self-organization of the liquid crystal monomers into well-aligned, anisotropic liquid crystal networks. The bilayer responds to changes in the environmental relative humidity, resulting in bending of the actuator with the liquid crystal network inside the curvature. In contrast, in conditions of constant high humidity (80%RH), increasing the temperature triggers the liquid crystal network coating to bend the bilayer in the opposing direction. The dual-responsivity to changes in environmental humidity and temperature is examined in detail and discussed theoretically to elucidate the humidity-gated, temperature responsive properties revealing guidelines for fabricating anisotropic bilayer actuators.

Graphical abstract: Unravelling humidity-gated, temperature responsive bilayer actuators

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Jan 2020
Accepted
14 Feb 2020
First published
14 Feb 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Soft Matter, 2020,16, 2753-2759

Unravelling humidity-gated, temperature responsive bilayer actuators

R. C. P. Verpaalen, A. E. J. Souren, M. G. Debije, T. A. P. Engels, C. W. M. Bastiaansen and A. P. H. J. Schenning, Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 2753 DOI: 10.1039/D0SM00030B

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