Stimulated mechanical responses of liquid crystal networks with a splayed molecular organization (Invited Paper)

Liquid Crystal Elastomers and Light

“…When UV light is shined on the small pulley on the right, and visible light on the large pulley on the left, the motor runs and the pulleys rotate continuously in the counterclockwise direction. The operating mechanism proposed here differs somewhat from that in [79]. UV irradiation produces a bend of the LCE towards the light, essentially increasing the length of the lever arm above the small pulley relative to that below.…”

“…Broer's group introduced heterogeneous structures, with different director orientations at the surfaces [78,79]. A practically useful configuration is the splay-bend configuration, where the director is in the plane of the front surface and perpendicular to the rear surface.…”