Active Pillar Array Structure by Solvent-free Liquid Crystal Elastomer Resin

Chang-Yue Liu; Zi-Xuan Wang; Tian-Yu Li; Ji-Ping Yang; Zhi-Jian Wang

doi:10.1007/s10118-025-3322-x

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Active Pillar Array Structure by Solvent-free Liquid Crystal Elastomer Resin

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2025-07-14

- Active Pillar Array Structure by Solvent-free Liquid Crystal Elastomer Resin
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 43, Issue 6, Pages: 1012-1021(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.Key Laboratory of Aerospace Advanced Materials and Performance, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
  b.Tianmushan Laboratory, Hangzhou 310023, China
- Author bio：
  
  jyang@buaa.edu.cn (J.P.Y.)
  zhijianw@buaa.edu.cn (Z.J.W.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3322-x
  CLC：
- Received：10 February 2025，
  
  Revised：2025-02-17，
  
  Accepted：20 February 2025，
  
  Online First：15 April 2025，
  
  Published：20 May 2025
- Accepted：
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Liu, C. Y.; Wang, Z. X.; Li, T. Y.; Yang, J. P.; Wang, Z. J. Active pillar array structure by solvent-free liquid crystal elastomer resin. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 1012–1021

Chang-Yue Liu, Zi-Xuan Wang, Tian-Yu Li, et al. Active Pillar Array Structure by Solvent-free Liquid Crystal Elastomer Resin[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43(6): 1012-1021.
Liu, C. Y.; Wang, Z. X.; Li, T. Y.; Yang, J. P.; Wang, Z. J. Active pillar array structure by solvent-free liquid crystal elastomer resin. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 1012–1021 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3322-x.

Chang-Yue Liu, Zi-Xuan Wang, Tian-Yu Li, et al. Active Pillar Array Structure by Solvent-free Liquid Crystal Elastomer Resin[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43(6): 1012-1021. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3322-x.

摘要

Active pillar arrays are fabricated using solvent-free liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) resins with tunable nematic-isotropic phase transition temperature (

). The LCE pillar arrays exhibit not only multiple deformation modes but also temperature-dependent sequential actuation. LCE pillar structures with different

are integrated for information encryption

providing multi-level information protection.

Abstract

Bioinspired active pillar structures

known for their large surface area

mechanical compliance

and diverse deformation modes

have garnered extensive research interest. Among various active pillar structures

liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) pillar arrays are capable of exhibiting significant and reversible anisotropic deformation under cyclic heating and cooling

showing great potential in tunable adhesion

soft robots

and biomedical devices. However

scaling up LCE pillar manufacturing remains challenging

limiting its practical applications. In this work

a solvent-free LCE resin is developed with unique features including simple operating procedure

short fabrication time

and tunable responsive temperature

enabling rapid and large-scale production of LCE pillar arrays. The LCE resin allows for the preparation of complex 3D shapes in addition to film or specimen. The fabrication time can be as short as 4 h

without the need to evaporate solvent. Moreover

the LCE resins can be adjusted with a variable phase transition temperature range from 49.4 °C to 97.7 °C by incorporating non-liquid crystal acrylate chains. The resulting active pillar array structure can undertake sequential actuation upon heating with the tunable actuation temperature. Finally

the application of these pillar arrays in multi-level information encryption is demonstrated. The LCE pillar structure introduced here offers a new strategy for constructing advanced active LCE structures with tunable responsive behavior.

关键词

Keywords

references

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