Liquid crystal-based elastomers in tissue engineering

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) play role in tissue engineering investigations, with the combination of orientational ordering generated by liquid crystal (LC) moieties and the elastic capabilities of polymers. Liquid crystal-based polymer materials require a thorough understanding of their features that set them apart from other smart materials for proper design and application. LCEs offer many advantages for their widespread use in the field of biomaterials, by virtue of their simplicity of processing, anisotropic behavior, and responding to numerous external stimuli. Especially, LCEs have widespread usage in bioengineering applications such as scaffolds due to their biocompatibility, viability, and proliferation properties of these materials. This study introduces a brief overview of the new areas of liquid crystal-based elastomer applications combining both biomaterials and engineering.