(Sci. China Mater.) An Ultrahigh Fatigue Resistant Liquid Crystal Elastomer Based Material Enabled by Liquid Metal
作者：Lu, H.; Nie, Z.; Bisoyi, H. K.; Wang, M.; Huang, S.; Chen, X.; Liu, Z.; Yang, H.*
關鍵字：Liquid Crystal Elastomer
論文來源：期刊
具體來源：Science China Materials, 2022, 65, 1679-1686.
發表時間：2022年
The low crosslink density characteristic of liquid
crystal elastomer (LCE) materials causes poor fatigue re-
sistance performance, which has seriously plagued their pro-
spects in industrial applications. Here we report that the
introduction of 5 wt% liquid metal nanodroplets (average
diameter: ca. 195 nm) into the LCE network can dramatically
reinforce the corresponding composite’s mechanical proper-
ties, in particular ultrahigh fatigue resistance, capable of
bearing unprecedented 10,000 tensile cycles within a large
range of strain amplitude up to 70% and 2000 times of con-
tinuous actuating deformations. Furthermore, this liquid
metal-incorporated LCE composite material exhibits large
actuation stroke (maximum actuation strain: 55%), high ac-
tuation stress (blocking stress: 1.13 MPa), fully reversible
thermal/photo-actuation functions, and self-healing ability at
moderate temperatures, which qualifies the composite mate-
rial for high-load actuators.