Institute of Solid State Physics

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Composites of Liquid Crystal Elastomers and Laser Induced Graphene for their application as soft actuators
Stella Drewes
Institute of Solid State Physics, TU Graz
https://tugraz.webex.com/tugraz/j.php?MTID=m6c6b82de49623669927888b9f83e2104
11:15 - 12:15 Wednesday 15 June 2022 PH01150

Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) are a class of stimuli-responsive polymers that show unique functionalities due to a combination of liquid crystalline order and rubber elasticity. They can exhibit remarkable changes in shape and large actuation strains in response to a stimulus such as heat which makes them promising candidates for their use as soft actuators. The thermal actuation of the LCE is based on a reversible nematic-isotropic transition associated with liquid crystalline order depending on temperature. Up to today, different methods have been studied to efficiently heat the LCE to induce the actuation process without limiting its actuation properties.
This project aims at investigating a new approach of integrating heating functionalities into the LCE. In order to induce heat and to actuate the LCE, tracks of Laser Induced Graphene (LIG) which are obtained by laser writing on a polyimide sheet, are going to be used. The conductive tracks will endow the possibility of locally activating the shape change of the LCE matrix via a Joule effect.
Within the framework of the project composites of LCEs and LIG are going to be investigated for their envisioned application as soft actuators. Different embedding strategies of the LIG tracks as well as material properties of the LCE matrix are examined.