液晶弹性体刺激形变研究

开发可以通过外部刺激产生机械形变的人工致动材料是一个近年来的研究热点。其中,液晶弹性体因结合了聚合物网络的橡胶弹性和液晶的有序性而具有独特的性质,在热、光、电等的外界刺激下可以产生可逆的形状记忆效应。本文综述了液晶弹性体响应多种外界刺激产生各种形变的行为,主要介绍了有关热致形变液晶弹性体、电致形变液晶弹性体、化学刺激导致形变的液晶弹性体及光致形变液晶弹性体的研究进展,阐述了各类液晶弹性体产生形变的机理包括热致、电致和光致相转变,讨论了影响其响应性能的主要因素,并展望了这一领域的发展前景。

Stimuli-Responsive Deformation of Liquid-Crystalline Elastomers

There has been considerable effort to develop artificial actuator materials that can generate large mechanical deformation induced by external stimuli. Among these materials, liquid crystalline elastomers have unique properties because of combining the rubber elasticity of the polymer network and the orientational ordering of liquid- crystalline moieties, and show reversible shape-recovery effects with shape memory induced by heat, light, electric field and so on. Here several kinds of stimuli-responsive deformation behavior of liquid-crystalline elastomers are reviewed. The progress on deformable liquid-crystalline elastomers in response to various external stimuli such as temperature, electric field, chemical stimulus, and light is mainly introduced. The mechanism of the deformation including thermal- induced, electric-field-induced and photoinduced phase transition is described, and the dominating influence factors of their responsive performance are discussed. The potential applications of liquid-crystalline elastomers are also prospected.