Chemically Actuated Nano- and Microscale Polymer Printer Based on Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Liquid crystal (LC) is an anisotropic fluid with the mobility of liquids and long-range order of crystals. Due to the combination of properties, LCs has been used to design reconfigurable materials that can optically signal a wide range of stimuli, such as temperature and bio-molecules. Recently, we have designed a new class of LC materials that autonomously sense and report a target stimulus and then transform their environment via triggered release of microcargo that are initially trapped in LCs.1 In this presentation, we will show that the smart LC materials can be programmed to print polymeric structure with diverse sizes and morphologies. Specifically, we demonstrated the microcargo containing initiator to be released upon a targeted stimulus and trigger the formation of hydrogels or amphiphilic polymers. We envisage the smart LCs to find applications in a variety of fields including self-healing system, nano printer, bacteria trap. 1Y.-K.Kim et. al., Nature, 557, 539 (2018).