Light-Driven Side-On Nematic Elastomer Actuators

✍ Scribed by M.-H. Li; P. Keller; B. Li; X. Wang; M. Brunet

• Book ID: 101410882
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 139 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0935-9648
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.200304552

✦ Synopsis

A range of monodomain nematic azo side‐on elastomers, containing different proportions of photoisomerizable azo mesogenic moieties, were prepared for the first time photochemically using a radical photoinitiator working at wavelengths above 600 nm. These elastomers exhibit a photomechanical contraction of up to 20 % upon irradiation with UV light. The Figure shows an elastomer film in its contracted form under UV irradiation.