Free-Form Liquid Crystal Elastomers via Embedded 4D Printing

McDougall, Luke; Herman, Jeremy; Huntley, Emily; Leguizamon, Samuel; Cook, Adam; White, Timothy; Kaehr, Bryan; Roach, Devin J.

doi:10.1021/acsami.3c14783

Title: Free-Form Liquid Crystal Elastomers via Embedded 4D Printing

Journal Article · 12 December 2023 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c14783 · OSTI ID:2229799

McDougall, Luke ^[1]; Herman, Jeremy ^[2]; Huntley, Emily ^[1];

^[1]; Cook, Adam ^[1];

^[3];

^[1];

^[4]

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a class of active materials that can generate rapid, reversible mechanical actuation in response to external stimuli. Fabrication methods for LCEs have remained a topic of intense research interest in recent years. One promising approach, termed 4D printing, combines the advantages of 3D printing with responsive materials, such as LCEs, to generate smart structures that not only possess user-defined static shapes but also can change their shape over time. To date, 4D-printed LCE structures have been limited to flat objects, restricting shape complexity and associated actuation for smart structure applications. In this work, we report the development of embedded 4D printing to extrude hydrophobic LCE ink into an aqueous, thixotropic gel matrix to produce free-standing, free-form 3D architectures without sacrificing the mechanical actuation properties. The ability to 4D print complex, free-standing 3D LCE architectures opens new avenues for the design and development of functional and responsive systems, such as reconfigurable metamaterials, soft robotics, or biomedical devices.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0003525; 2105369

OSTI ID:: 2229799

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2469907

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 15, Issue 50; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Materials Science
liquid crystal elastomers
embedded printing
4D printing
free form printing
soft robots
soft mechanics

Title: Free-Form Liquid Crystal Elastomers via Embedded 4D Printing

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