Photomechanical response under physiological conditions of azobenzene-containing 4D-printed liquid crystal elastomer actuators

Ceamanos, L. ; Mulder, D. J. ; Kahveci, Z. ; López-Valdeolivas, M. ; Schenning, A. P. H. J. ; Sánchez-Somolinos, C.

Resumen: Soft and mechanically responsive actuators hold the promise to revolutionize the design and manufacturing of devices in the areas of microfluidics, soft robotics and biomedical engineering. In many of these applications, the actuators need to operate in a wet environment that can strongly affect their performance. In this paper, we report on the photomechanical response in a biological buffer of azobenzene-containing liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based actuators, prepared by four-dimensional (4D) printing. Although the photothermal contribution to the photoresponse is largely cancelled by the heat withdrawing capacity of the employed buffer, a significant photoinduced reversible contraction, in the range of 7% of its initial length, has been achieved under load, taking just a few seconds to reach half of the maximum contraction. Effective photomechanical work performance under physiological conditions has, therefore, been demonstrated in the 4D-printed actuators. Advantageously, the photomechanical response is not sensitive to salts present in the buffer differently to hydrogels with responses highly dependent on the fluid composition. Our work highlights the capabilities of photomechanical actuators, created using 4D printing, when operating under physiological conditions, thus showing their potential for application in the microfluidics and biomedical fields.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1039/d2tb02757g

Año: 2023

Publicado en: Journal of Materials Chemistry B 11, 18 (2023), 4083-4094
ISSN: 2050-750X

Factor impacto JCR: 6.1 (2023)

Categ. JCR: MATERIALS SCIENCE, BIOMATERIALS rank: 11 / 53 = 0.208 (2023) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 12.0 - Biomedical Engineering (Q1) - Chemistry (all) (Q1) - Materials Science (all) (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.216 - Biomedical Engineering (Q1) - Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Materials Science (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Chemistry (miscellaneous) (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E47-20R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FEDER/LMP221_21
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/829010/EU/Advanced and versatile PRInting platform for the next generation of active Microfluidic dEvices/PRIME
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/ISCIII/CB06-01/00263
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2020-118485RB-I00

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)