Université de Fribourg

Photo-crosslinked side-chain liquid-crystalline elastomers for microsystems

Sánchez-Ferrer, Antoni ; Fischl, Tamás ; Stubenrauch, Mike ; Wurmus, Helmut ; Hoffmann, Martin ; Finkelmann, Heino

In: Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, 2009, vol. 210, no. 20, p. 1671-1677

Photo-crosslinkable side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers (LCPs) containing photoreactive benzophenone cores are synthesized in order to obtain their corresponding side-chain liquid-crystalline elastomers (LCEs). This strategic synthesis allows thin elastomeric films and their integration into microsystems for actuators and micromachines to be obtained. As an example of this principle, a gripper...