American researchers have developed a new material that can be transformed into a preset shape after being stimulated by light and heat. This controllable deformation material is expected to be widely used in the fields of robotics, biomedical equipment and artificial muscles.
The new material uses liquid crystalline elastomers to achieve bidirectional deformation and can be observed by the naked eye, according to a study published 24th in the Journal of Scientific Progress of the United States. Liquid Crystal elastomer is a kind of polymer material, the most common is applied to LCD TV monitor. The unique molecular arrangement of the liquid crystal elastomer makes it change after being stimulated by the outside world.
However, this change often requires dense, irreversible programming methods to be implemented. In the new study, the researchers installed a photosensitive switch in the liquid crystal elastomer that, when exposed to a specific wavelength of light, the molecules are first arranged in a particular way, and then deformed after exposure to thermal stimulation.
