Thermal and Electrical Actuation of Liquid Crystal Elastomers/Gels

Abstract

This review describes the thermal and electrical actuation of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) which have the strong coupling between the macroscopic shape and LC alignment. Various types of thermal deformation such as elongation/contraction, bending, and torsion are driven by controlling the director configuration in LCEs. The periodic surface undulation is thermally induced using the helical director configuration in cholesteric elastomers. The nematic elastomers with polydomain alignment, which are prepared in the high-temperature isotropic state, undergo the realignment of local directors at modest strengths of external field, resulting in the electrically driven deformation. The cholesteric gels with helical director configuration exhibit the pronounced electro-optical effects for selective reflection coupled to electromechanical effects.