Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft, anisotropic materials that exhibit large shape transformations when subjected to various stimuli. Here we demonstrate a facile approach to enhance the out-of-plane work capacity of these materials by an order of magnitude, to nearly 20 J/kg. The enhancement in force output is enabled by the development of a room temperature polymerizable composition used both to prepare individual films, organized via directed self-assembly to retain arrays of topological defect profiles, as well as act as an adhesive to combine the LCE layers. The material actuator is shown to displace a load >2500× heavier than its own weight nearly 0.5 mm.

Artificial hair sensors consisting of a piezoresistive carbon-nanotube-coated glass fiber embedded in a microcapillary are assembled and characterized. Individual sensors resemble a hair plug that may be integrated in a wide range of host materials. The sensors demonstrate an air-flow detection threshold of less than 1 m/s with a piezoresistive sensitivity of 1.3% per m/s air-flow change.

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