Recyclable and Self-Repairable Fluid-Driven Liquid Crystal Elastomer Actuator

Liquid
crystal elastomer (LCE) is a newly emerging soft actuating
material that has been extensively explored for building novel soft
robots and diverse active devices, thanks to its large actuation stress
and strain, high work density, and versatile actuation modes. However,
there have also been several widely recognized limitations of LCE-based
actuators for practical applications, including slow response and
narrow range of operation temperature. Herein, we develop fluid-driven
disulfide LCE actuators through facile laminate manufacturing enabled
by a dynamic bond exchange reaction. Because of the merits of the
active heating/cooling mechanism of the fluidic structure, this newly
developed disulfide LCE actuator can generate large cyclic actuation
at a frequency around 1 Hz and can operate in a wide range of temperatures.
The unique combination of the fluidic structure design and the dynamic
covalent bonds in the elastomer has also enabled the full recyclability
and self-repairability of the actuator. Using the newly developed
actuator as building block, we further constructed soft robotic systems
that can realize manipulating and programmable movement. The design
principle demonstrated in the current work opens a promising avenue
for exploring more novel applications of LCE-based soft actuators.