Issue 18, 2023

Photomechanical response under physiological conditions of azobenzene-containing 4D-printed liquid crystal elastomer actuators

Abstract

Soft and mechanically responsive actuators hold the promise to revolutionize the design and manufacturing of devices in the areas of microfluidics, soft robotics and biomedical engineering. In many of these applications, the actuators need to operate in a wet environment that can strongly affect their performance. In this paper, we report on the photomechanical response in a biological buffer of azobenzene-containing liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based actuators, prepared by four-dimensional (4D) printing. Although the photothermal contribution to the photoresponse is largely cancelled by the heat withdrawing capacity of the employed buffer, a significant photoinduced reversible contraction, in the range of 7% of its initial length, has been achieved under load, taking just a few seconds to reach half of the maximum contraction. Effective photomechanical work performance under physiological conditions has, therefore, been demonstrated in the 4D-printed actuators. Advantageously, the photomechanical response is not sensitive to salts present in the buffer differently to hydrogels with responses highly dependent on the fluid composition. Our work highlights the capabilities of photomechanical actuators, created using 4D printing, when operating under physiological conditions, thus showing their potential for application in the microfluidics and biomedical fields.

Graphical abstract: Photomechanical response under physiological conditions of azobenzene-containing 4D-printed liquid crystal elastomer actuators

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Dec 2022
Accepted
16 Feb 2023
First published
24 Apr 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023,11, 4083-4094

Photomechanical response under physiological conditions of azobenzene-containing 4D-printed liquid crystal elastomer actuators

L. Ceamanos, D. J. Mulder, Z. Kahveci, M. López-Valdeolivas, A. P. H. J. Schenning and C. Sánchez-Somolinos, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2023, 11, 4083 DOI: 10.1039/D2TB02757G

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