Liquid crystalline elastomer self-oscillating fiber actuators fabricated from soft tubular molds

Abstract

The self-oscillation of objects that perform continuous and periodic motions upon unchanging and constant stimuli is highly important for intelligent actuators, advanced robotics, and biomedical machines. Liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) materials are superior to traditional stimuli-responsive polymeric materials in the development of self-oscillators because of their reversible, large and anisotropic shape-changing ability, fast response ability and versatile structural design. In addition, fiber-shaped oscillators have attracted much interest due to their agility, flexibility and diverse oscillation modes. Herein, we present a strategy for fabricating fiber-shaped LCE self-oscillators using soft tubes as molds. Through the settlement of different configuration states of the soft tubes, the prepared fiber-shaped LCE oscillators can perform continuous rotational self-oscillation or up-and-down shifting self-oscillation under constant light stimuli, which are realized by photoinduced repetitive self-winding motion and self-waving motion, respectively. The mechanism of self-oscillating movements is attributed to the local temperature oscillation of LCE fibers caused by repetitive self-shadowing effects. LCE self-oscillators can operate stably over many oscillating cycles without obvious performance attenuation, revealing good robustness. Our work offers a versatile way by which LCE self-oscillators can be conveniently designed and fabricated in bulk and at low cost, and broadens the road for developing self-oscillating materials for biological robotics and health care machines.