Design of Smart Polymer Printer using Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Advanced microscale systems for stimuli-responsive release have recently received tremendous attention. However, the conventional stimuli-responsive release system requires specially designed materials, which limits diverse applications. To overcome the limitation, here we show a simple and versatile strategy to access the stimuli-responsive properties via liquid crystals (LCs). We recently designed a ‘Polymer Printer’ which triggers the escape of microcarrier that are elastically levitating within the LCs which sense stimuli and then polymerize. Specifically, the polymer printer consists of two different types of wells. The two wells are filled with LCs where monomer (e.g., alginate) and cross-linker are initially trapped as microcarrier. In response to target stimuli, the electrical interactions help the release of monomer and the cross-linker from the other wells acted as ‘Polymer Printer’ that can make the gelation. Supported by NRF(2021R1A2C2095010 & 2022M3C1A3081312) and POSCO Science Fellowship funded by POSCO TJ Park Foundation.