Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 24, 2025
12:04
Microfluidic Preparation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Actuators
Published on: May 20, 2018
9.3K
Twist again: Dynamically and reversibly controllable chirality in liquid crystalline elastomer microposts
James T Waters1, Shucong Li2, Yuxing Yao2
1Chemical Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
Science Advances
|April 8, 2020
Summary
Photoresponsive liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) can be programmed to bend and twist like muscles. This breakthrough enables advanced soft robots with complex movements, mimicking biological systems.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Soft Robotics
- Polymer Chemistry
Background:
- Photoresponsive liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are promising actuators for soft robots due to light-induced shape changes.
- Conventional LCEs lack the complex bending and twisting capabilities for sophisticated robotic maneuvers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To model and experimentally validate LCE microposts with programmable director orientations for controlled light-induced deformations.
- To explore the photoinduced chirality in LCEs for advanced actuator design.
Main Methods:
- Modeling LCE microposts with magnetically programmed nematic directors and azobenzene cross-linkers.
- Investigating light-induced bending and twisting behaviors by altering director orientation and incident light angles.
- Designing and testing "chimera" posts with dual director orientations.
Main Results:
- Altering director orientation changed post bending from light-seeking to light-avoiding.
- Tilted directors (45°) induced reversible, light-controlled chiral twisting in initially achiral posts.
- Chimera posts demonstrated simultaneous bending and twisting, mimicking musculoskeletal motion.
Conclusions:
- Programmable director orientation in LCEs allows precise control over bending and twisting.
- Photoinduced chirality is a viable mechanism for creating complex articulated motions in soft actuators.
- This work paves the way for LCEs in advanced soft robotics and biomimetic systems.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
02:30Chirality in Nature
16.3K
Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid.
16.3K
01:26Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
3.1K
Polymerization generates chiral centers along the entire backbone of a polymer chain. Accordingly, the stereochemistry of the substituent group has a significant effect on polymer properties. Polymers formed from monosubstituted alkene monomers feature chiral carbons at every alternate position in the polymer backbone. Relative to the predominant orientation of substituents at the adjacent chiral carbons, the polymer can exist in three different configurations: isotactic, syndiotactic, and...
3.1K
02:05Prochirality
4.7K
The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
4.7K
02:25Chirality
28.8K
Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
28.8K
02:25Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
14.6K
Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...
14.6K
02:33Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds
10.8K
In this lesson, we delve into the role of ring conformation and its stability, which determines the spatial arrangement and, consequently, the molecular symmetry and stereoisomerism of cyclic compounds. 1,2-Dimethylcyclohexane is used as a case study to evaluate the possible number of stereoisomers. Here, given the multiple (n = 2) chiral centers, there are 2n = 4 possible configurations that lack a plane of symmetry, as the ring skeleton exists in a non-planar chair conformation. In addition,...
10.8K