Liquid crystal elastomer coatings with programmed response of surface profile

Babakhanova, Greta; Turiv, Taras; Guo, Yubing; Hendrikx, Matthew; Wei, Qi‐Huo; Schenning, Albert P. H. J.; Broer, Dirk J.; Lavrentovich, Oleg D.

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-02895-9

Cited by 136 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(54 reference statements)

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125

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Order By: Relevance

“…Reducing the order parameter at elevated temperatures results in forming protrusions in the chiral nematic region with a height of a hundred nanometers. Babakhanova et al have shown similar effects with an LCN coating on glass that exhibits a well‐controlled director pattern of radially aligned elements containing a regular array of +1 and −1 defects. Changing the scalar order parameter by heating to the rubbery state above the glass transition, the LCN coating forms hills and valleys of tens of nanometers exactly at the locations of the defects where the directors coincide.…”

Section: Light‐responsive Liquid Crystal Networkmentioning

confidence: 84%

Surface Dynamics at Photoactive Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks

Liu

2019

Advanced Optical Materials

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creating insulation under cold conditions and emitting evaporable liquid when it is warm. [1][2][3] Peacock feathers, wings of certain butterflies, and plants exhibit color by means of structural color to communicate attraction or, inversely, repulsion. Often, the colors originate from periodic structures on or under a surface, thus benefiting from the interplay of light and diffractive effects.A surface is the outermost layer of matter and therefore is primarily perceived by humans upon touch or vision. Surfaces provide perceptible information by not only shape, color, and/or reflective properties but also how the matter feels upon touch, e.g., smooth or rough. Welldocumented static structures have been reported for haptic applications. [4] Studies have suggested that humans can distinguish changes in topographical dimensions down to nanometers. [5] Additionally, a surface is the first contact between objects of matter, either of the same object or that of another origin. Surfaces facilitate man-machine interactions, [6] either by touch (smooth, rough, heat conductive, etc.) or by vision (scattering, specular reflection, printed information, etc.). [7][8][9] In relation to this function, tribological properties such as friction, stick, and adhesion coefficients also find application in the field of haptics, where robotic manipulation is of importance. In contrast to nature, the surface structures in modern man-made technology are often still static. Mimicking the lotus flower, surfaces with artificially formed micrometer-sized structures that are produced by lithography or micromachining have been made, and they indeed show improved cleaning under rainy conditions. However, one expands the surface function when these structures are made dynamic, rather than static, for example, the surface would be able to remove dirt under dry conditions, as well. In the case of topographies for haptic use, man's sensitivity could be enhanced when the corrugations are moving with a frequency tuned to the maximum sensitivity of humans. However, only a few publications have described dynamic structures to enhance human-surface interactions, which could even help visually disabled people. Moreover, in an advanced technology such as microfluidics, the low Reynolds number prohibits turbulent mixing of fluid components. Mixing can be induced by surface topographical structures in the microchannels to increase the contact area and the contact time between the reagents. The microfluidic functionality would be enhanced if the topography of its inner walls could be switched in a dynamic way, e.g., to decide on the exact location and time that switching The field of advanced and responsive soft materials is at the edge of a new era. After several decades during which liquid crystals generated new functions for information displays and could solve many problems in emerging fields such as (tele)communications, this material system is being utilized to reach out to completely new application fields with functions that can take over biologica...

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Section: Light‐responsive Liquid Crystal Networkmentioning

confidence: 84%

Surface Dynamics at Photoactive Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks

Liu

2019

Advanced Optical Materials

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“…Here, we used the simplest case, where the LC director is uniform. However, using photoalignment approaches, for instance, allow one to generate any desired director field orientations (Babakhanova et al, 2018;Guo et al, 2016;Ware, McConney, Wie, Tondiglia, & White, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cell alignment by smectic liquid crystal elastomer coatings with nanogrooves

Babakhanova

Krieger

et al. 2020

J Biomedical Materials Res

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Control of cells behavior through topography of substrates is an important theme in biomedical applications. Among many materials used as substrates, polymers show advantages since they can be tailored by chemical functionalization. Fabrication of polymer substrates with nano‐ and microscale topography requires processing by lithography, microprinting, etching, and so forth. In this work, we introduce a different approach based on anisotropic elastic properties of polymerized smectic A (SmA) liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). When the SmA liquid crystal coating is deposited onto a substrate with planar alignment of the molecules, it develops nanogrooves at its free surface. After photopolymerization, these nanogrooves show an excellent ability to align human dermal fibroblasts over large areas. The alignment quality is good for both bare SmA LCE substrates and for substrates coated with fibronectin. The SmA LCE nano‐topographies show a high potential for tissue engineering.

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“…Inkjet printing was also applied to prepare a microactuator showing complicated motion mimicking natural cilia . Moreover, surface properties of CLCP films, such as adhesion and friction, were controlled through switching of surface topography at the microscopic scale …”

Section: Structures Of Photomobile Polymer Materials From Nano To Macromentioning

confidence: 99%

Photomobile Polymer Materials with Complex 3D Deformation, Continuous Motions, Self‐Regulation, and Enhanced Processability

Ube

Ikeda

2019

Advanced Optical Materials

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Liquid‐crystalline polymers with photodeformable properties have been extensively studied due to their ability of wireless conversion of light energy into mechanical work. With the development of crosslinked liquid‐crystalline polymers, various 3D motions, such as bending, twisting, oscillation, rotation, and translational motion have been successfully induced. Recent trends for developing soft robots and microrobots accelerate the progress of photomobile polymer materials. This review is focused on recent advances in the field of photomobile materials based on liquid‐crystalline polymers. The structure–function relationship in photomobile polymer materials is overviewed, and the progress in recent years is detailed in terms of complex 3D deformation, continuous motions, self‐regulation, and processability.

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Liquid crystal elastomer coatings with programmed response of surface profile

Cited by 136 publications

References 40 publications

Surface Dynamics at Photoactive Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks

Surface Dynamics at Photoactive Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks

Cell alignment by smectic liquid crystal elastomer coatings with nanogrooves

Photomobile Polymer Materials with Complex 3D Deformation, Continuous Motions, Self‐Regulation, and Enhanced Processability

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