Chemically Actuated Liquid Crystal-Based Polymer Printer

Liquid crystals (LC) exhibit the mobility of liquids and long-range order of crystals, leading to anisotropic viscoelastic properties. These properties have been used to design responsive soft materials that can amplify a range of chemical/physical stimuli into macroscopic optical outputs. Recently, we have reported a new class of LC materials based on micrometer-sized aqueous droplets dispersed in thermotropic LCs that both optically report targeted stimuli and trigger release of microcargo initially sequestered within the LC. In this presentation, we will show that these LC materials can be programmed to print three-dimensional polymeric networks and assemblies with diverse sizes and morphologies (from nanometer to millimeter) via triggered polymerization. Specifically, we will demonstrate that it is possible to trigger the polymerization of hydrogels or amphiphilic polymers by hosting initiators within microcargo sequestered in LCs. This work illustrates how it is possible to exploit the elasticity of LCs in combination with polymerization processes to achieve multi-scale responses to molecular-level triggering events.