Silver Coated Multi-Functional Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Polymeric Composites as Electro-Responsive and Piezo-Resistive Artificial Muscles.

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are a class of shape-changing polymers with exceptional mechanical properties and potential as artificial muscles/polymer actuators. In this study, we have developed multifunctional LCE actuators with strain sensing and joule heating responsivity. LCEs were successfully synthesized using the thiol-ene Two-staged Michael Addition Polymerization (TMAP) method. The LCE films were further functionalised via sequential polydopamine (PDA) and silver electroless coating. We found that the PDA coating enabled the anchoring of the Ag particles to the LCE, thereby enabling the electrical conductivity of the Ag-LCEs (<0.1 Ωcm-1). Our studies confirm that the Ag/PDA coated LCEs can sense up to ∼30% strain, sense their own actuation strokes, and actuate at a rate of 1.83%/s whilst lifting a weight ∼50 times its mass in response to a 12 V 2A DC current. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.