Photomechanical vibration energy harvesting based on liquid crystal elastomer cantilever

Zhao, Dong; Liu, Ying

doi:10.1088/1361-665x/ab15ab

Cited by 45 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In this part, based on the above theoretical derivation, the spontaneous bending of an anisotropic LCE square plate and the structure design is investigated. In the following calculations, the relevant material parameters are given as: E // =1GPa, E ⊥ = 0.5GPa, G = 0.1Gpa, ν // =ν ⊥ = 0.5, T 0 = 0.4 s, η 0 = 0.00022 s −1 , P 0// =0.001, a = b = 10 h. [25,31] The light intensity is I 0 = 5kwm −2 . In addition, x = x=a , y = y=b , and w = w=h are used in the following discussions so that the effect of plate dimension on the spontaneous bending can be easily understood.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The similar experimental phenomenon was also observed by Serak et al [23] Li and Cai [24] theoretically studied the light driven bending vibration of LCE beam. Taking into account the light induced inhomogeneous strain distribution, Zhao and Liu [25] studied the photomechanical vibration energy harvesting of an LCE cantilever. Dunn [26] analyzed the curvatures of monodomain and polydomain LCE plates under the illumination stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Programmable liquid crystal elastomer matrix through photomechanical responses

Zhao

Liu

2020

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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Considering the dependence of photomechanical responses of liquid crystal elastomers on the director orientation, the performance controlling through director orientation design becomes possible. In this article, a programmable liquid crystal elastomer matrix is proposed to achieve the desired functions. First, a modeling framework about the spontaneous bending of liquid crystal elastomer square plate with arbitrary director orientation is developed. Three kinds of spontaneous bending configurations are obtained along with the variation of the director orientation, and the critical division of the director orientation is given. Based on the deformation characteristic, the director orientation of the liquid crystal elastomer matrix is programmed and several typical prototypical functions, such as 3D code or image display, are discussed. This work provides the guidance for the application of the liquid crystal elastomer in haptic display, braille display, remotely‐controlled actuators, and codes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Programmable liquid crystal elastomer matrix through photomechanical responses

Zhao

Liu

2020

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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“…change of stimulus sites and thus persistently actuates the motion of the LCE device. Several examples have adopted this stimulus form successfully, such as the LCE wheels and helical ribbons designed by Zhao and co-workers [4] the LCE light-fueled cantilever oscillators designed by White and co-workers, [34,111] and the LCE electric locomotives designed by Yang and co-workers. [112] Programming stimulus can achieve versatile actuations of LCEs by digital control of both stimulus sites and the stimulus intensity, thereby having a huge advantage in complex actuators and soft robots.…”

Section: Selection Of Stimulus Objects Stimulus Forms Deformation Mod...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Inhomogeneous deformation generated by the local stimulus in the LCEs will induce the displacement of the centroid of a LCE device, which leads to the change of stimulus sites and thus persistently actuates the motion of the LCE device. Several examples have adopted this stimulus form successfully, such as the LCE wheels and helical ribbons designed by Zhao and co‐workers [ 4 ] the LCE light‐fueled cantilever oscillators designed by White and co‐workers, [ 34,111 ] and the LCE electric locomotives designed by Yang and co‐workers. [ 112 ]…”

Section: Versatile Actuations For Lcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Varied Alignment Methods and Versatile Actuations for Liquid Crystal Elastomers: A Review

Zhao

Zhang

2021

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are a class of polymer materials that can produce reversible strain responses under heat, [1,2] light, [3][4][5][6] electric field [7] (or electric induction heat), [8,9] magnetic field (or magnetic induction heat), [10,11] moisture, [12] or solvent, [13] etc. They have attracted intense attention due to their enormous potential applications in soft robots, [1,9,[14][15][16][17][18] soft actuators, [4,8,14,[19][20][21][22][23] sensors, [22,[24][25][26] artificial muscles, [27][28][29] biomedicine, [30,31] flexible electronics, [32,33] light energy collection, [34] etc.LCEs are composed of rigid mesogens and flexible polymer networks, with the result that the anisotropy of liquid crystal and the rubber elasticity of polymer network can be both shown in LCEs. [35][36][37] Induced by mechanical stress, external field, or surface effect, the long axes of the mesogens can be aligned into specific directions (expressed by the director n), and this process is called alignment. Liquid crystal polymers after alignment are chemically [38] or physically [39] crosslinked to form anisotropic monodomain (including nematic, smectic, or cholesteric) LCEs. On the contrary, LCEs are in a polydomain state with isotropy when the directors of liquid crystal domains are arranged disorderly. Triggered by the external physical or chemical stimuli, the response and deformation originated from the phase transition from a liquid crystalline phase to an isotropic phase is significantly enhanced in the monodomain LCEs. This process is macroscopically manifested as the size shrinkage of LCEs in the orientation direction. [40,41] Therefore, the orientation degree of LCEs affects the maximum deformation actuated by the external stimuli to a large extent, whereas the orientation direction of LCEs determines their macroscopic deformation direction. The programmability of the mesogen orientation lays a foundation for achieving versatile deformation actuations of LCEs. [42] Aligning the mesogen orientation and achieving versatile actuations of LCEs are always the central research objects in the field of LCEs, and have developed rapidly in recent years. However, few reviews are addressing these two important issues simultaneously.Herein, in Section 1, we briefly elucidate the relationships between the microscopic orientation structure of LCEs, external stimuli, and macroscopic deformation characteristics of LCEs. In Section 2, we introduce three types of LCE alignment methods and their basic principles, and focus on comparing their programmability toward the mesogen orientation. In Section 3, we summarize two types of actuations for LCEs on the basis of the latest development, and focus on comparing their deformation controllability. In Section 4, we propose an outlook for the future key technologies to develop versatile, precise, and fastresponsive deformation actuations for LCEs. This review aims to help people to design and prepare LCEs with programmable orientation structure and excellent actuation characteristic...

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“…Among various and effective stimuli in the LCE systems, light stimulus is more convenient to induce self-feedback to achieve self-sustained oscillation [ 43 ]. Recently, light-fueled self-oscillation based on LCE has attracted the attention of many scientists, and a large number of light-fueled self-oscillating systems based on LCE have been developed [ 30 , 43 , 44 , 59 , 60 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Jumping of a Liquid Crystal Elastomer Balloon under Steady Illumination

Jin

Dai

et al. 2022

Polymers

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Self-oscillation capable of maintaining periodic motion upon constant stimulus has potential applications in the fields of autonomous robotics, energy-generation devices, mechano-logistic devices, sensors, and so on. Inspired by the active jumping of kangaroos and frogs in nature, we proposed a self-jumping liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) balloon under steady illumination. Based on the balloon contact model and dynamic LCE model, a nonlinear dynamic model of a self-jumping LCE balloon under steady illumination was formulated and numerically calculated by the Runge–Kutta method. The results indicated that there exist two typical motion regimes for LCE balloon under steady illumination: the static regime and the self-jumping regime. The self-jumping of LCE balloon originates from its expansion during contact with a rigid surface, and the self-jumping can be maintained by absorbing light energy to compensate for the damping dissipation. In addition, the critical conditions for triggering self-jumping and the effects of several key system parameters on its frequency and amplitude were investigated in detail. The self-jumping LCE hollow balloon with larger internal space has greater potential to carry goods or equipment, and may open a new insight into the development of mobile robotics, soft robotics, sensors, controlled drug delivery, and other miniature device applications.

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Photomechanical vibration energy harvesting based on liquid crystal elastomer cantilever

Cited by 45 publications

References 40 publications

Programmable liquid crystal elastomer matrix through photomechanical responses

Programmable liquid crystal elastomer matrix through photomechanical responses

Varied Alignment Methods and Versatile Actuations for Liquid Crystal Elastomers: A Review

Self-Jumping of a Liquid Crystal Elastomer Balloon under Steady Illumination

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