Abstract:
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), which combine the anisotropy of liquid crystals with the entropic elasticity of polymer networks, have attracted considerable attention owing to the rapid development of flexible intelligent devices such as soft robotics and bioinspired actuators. A major challenge in LCE-based actuators lies in balancing mechanical properties and thermally induced actuation behavior. In this study, a dynamically crosslinked liquid crystal elastomer film with a rigid-flexible coupled network (denoted as PCL-CN-LCE) was constructed through the synergistic incorporation of a rigid chain containing dynamic carbon-nitrogen double bonds (C=N) and a flexible polycaprolactone diol (PCL) chain. Leveraging the inherent flexibility of the PCL chain together with the π–π stacking interactions and dipole enhancement effects of the rigid CN chain, the phase transition temperature of the PCL-CN-LCE film was precisely tuned to 50 ℃. The introduction of dynamic C=N bonds increases the crosslinking density of the liquid crystal polymer, resulting in a fracture tensile strength of 6.1 MPa, an elongation at break of 224.6%, and a retained actuation strain of 36.8%. Consequently, the actuation temperature was effectively lowered without sacrificing mechanical or actuation performance. Furthermore, the PCL-CN-LCE film was assembled with a polyimide (PI) electrothermal sheet to fabricate an electrothermal actuator. At a driving voltage of 5 V, the actuator exhibited stable bending deformation with a bending angle of 274.8° and could reliably grasp a ping-pong ball weighing 2.7 g within 3 seconds. This work provides a new paradigm for the design and application of kinetic liquid crystal elastomers.