Domestic Conference

자기장을 이용한 DLP 프린팅을 통한 액정탄성체의 분자 배향 프로그래밍
Author
안종원, 정세희, 이호원
Conference
한국정밀공학회 2022년도 추계학술대회
Date
10월 2022

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) are gaining increasing attention for their reversible stimuli-responsive deformation driven by molecular orientation of liquid crystal (LC) molecules. Molecular alignment has been achieved primarily using mechanical extension or viscous shear in direct ink writing (DIW) printing and digital light processing (DLP) process. Here, we report a DLP system capable of printing an LCE structure while selectively programming molecular orientation of LC molecules using a magnetic field. We report a LCE precursor solution that maintains a nematic phase at room temperature. Using a custom-built DLP printing system with an integrated magnetic field generator, LC molecules are aligned in the desired orientation in seconds and selectively cured by patterned digital light projection. Therefore, different LC orientations are encoded in a single structure. This allows for spatial patterning of LC orientations independent of the geometry of the printed structure. Various programming examples are also demonstrated using 4D printing with LCE.