Shape Morphing Directed by Spatially Encoded, Dually Responsive Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Micro-actuators.

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) with intrinsic molecular anisotropy can be programmed to morph shapes under external stimuli. However, it is difficult to program the position and orientation of individual mesogenic units separately and locally, whether in-plane or out-of-plane, since each mesogen is linked to adjacent ones through the covalently bonded polymer chains. Here, we synthesize dually responsive, spindle-shaped micro-actuators from LCE composites, which can reorient under a magnetic field and change the shape upon heating. When the discrete micro-actuators are embedded in a conventional and non-responsive elastomer with programmed height distribution and in-plane orientation in local regions, we show robust and complex shape morphing induced by the cooperative actuations of the locally distributed micro-actuators, which corroborates with finite element analysis. The spatial encoding of discrete micro-actuators in a non-responsive matrix allows us to decouple the actuators and the matrix, broadening the material palette to program local and global responses to stimuli for applications including soft robotics, smart wearables, and sensors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.