Nature Communications (Jan 2018)

Liquid crystal elastomer coatings with programmed response of surface profile

  • Greta Babakhanova,
  • Taras Turiv,
  • Yubing Guo,
  • Matthew Hendrikx,
  • Qi-Huo Wei,
  • Albert P. H. J. Schenning,
  • Dirk J. Broer,
  • Oleg D. Lavrentovich

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-02895-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Liquid crystal elastomers are anisotropic rubbers which can be actuated by an external trigger. Here the authors develop elastomer coatings with pre-patterned molecular orientation that induces deterministic topography changes in response to changes in temperature.