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- Title
Light-driven continuous rotating Möbius strip actuators.
- Authors
Nie, Zhen-Zhou; Zuo, Bo; Wang, Meng; Huang, Shuai; Chen, Xu-Man; Liu, Zhi-Yang; Yang, Hong
- Abstract
Twisted toroidal ribbons such as the one-sided Möbius strip have inspired scientists, engineers and artists for many centuries. A physical Möbius strip exhibits interesting mechanical properties deriving from a tendency to redistribute the torsional strain away from the twist region. This leads to the interesting possibility of building topological actuators with continuous deformations. Here we report on a series of corresponding bi-layered stripe actuators using a photothermally responsive liquid crystal elastomer as the fundamental polymeric material. Employing a special procedure, even Möbius strips with an odd number of twists can be fabricated exhibiting a seamless homeotropic and homogeneous morphology. Imposing a suitable contraction gradient under near-infrared light irradiation, these ribbons can realize continuous anticlockwise/clockwise in-situ rotation. Our work could pave the way for developing actuators and shape morphing materials that need not rely on switching between distinct states. Shape morphing materials are usually difficult to operate in a continuous fashion. Nie et al. fabricate stripes with liquid crystalline elastomers that can be given a Möbius-like morphology with seamless material composition, and perpetually driven under photothermally induced actuation.
- Subjects
ACTUATORS; ODD numbers; LIQUID crystals
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2021, Vol 12, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-021-22644-9