Embedding Intelligence in Materials for Responsive Built Environment using Liquid Crystal Elastomer Actuators and Sensors

Abstract

Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) are an exciting category of material that has tremendous application potential across a variety of fields, owing to their unique properties that enable both sensing and actuation. To some, LCEs are simply another type of Shape Memory Polymer, while to others they are an interesting on-going scientific experiment. In this visionary article, we bring an interdisciplinary discussion around creative and impactful ways that LCEs can be applied in the Built Environment to support kinematic and kinetic buildings and situational awareness. We focus particularly on the autonomy made possible by using LCEs, potentially removing needs for motors, wiring and tubing, and even enabling fully independent operation in response to natural environment variations, requiring no power sources. To illustrate the potential, we propose a number of concrete application scenarios where LCEs could offer innovative solutions to problems of great societal importance, such as autonomous active ventilation, heliotropic solar panels systems which can also remove snow or sand autonomously, and invisible coatings with strain mapping functionality, alerting residents in case of dangerous (static or dynamic) loads on roofs or windows, as well as assisting building safety inspection teams after earthquakes.

The importance of structure property relationship for the designing of biomaterials using liquid crystal elastomers

“…[19][20][21] LCEs can also mimic vital features of endogenous tissue thus satisfying the prerequisites biocompatibility and biodegradability, mechanical properties, cell spatial growth, cell alignment, and long-term studies that are considered as tissue engineering systems. [22][23][24] LCs have long been used and/or incorporated into materials to create composites, ensure better processing, [25][26][27][28] introduce LC properties, create chemical sensors, [29][30][31] and biosensors, 32,33 soft actuators, [34][35][36][37][38] light driven motors, 39,40 as responsive building blocks for guiding 2D cell growth, 41,42 promoters of cell orientational order, [43][44][45] or to control the dynamics of bacteria. 46,47…”