Phase Separation of Homopolymer Blended Liquid Crystal Elastomers(LCE) for Creation of Porous Structures

Liquid Crystal elastomers (LCE), with their combination of ordered Liquid Crystal structure and rubber-like elasticity, enable anisotropic responses to external stimuli and efficient transduction of thermal and light energy into reversible mechanical deformation. LCEs are ideal for manufacturing self-driven actuators with complex deformations, and porous LCEs are particularly sought after for their exceptional deformation capabilities. The introduction of porosity reduces density, enhances processability, and increases the surface area available for interaction with external stimuli, all of which offer distinct advantages over solid LCEs. This versatility has led to a wide range of potential applications, including soft robotics, drug delivery, 3D cell scaffold, and sensor technology. In this work, homopolymers are incorporated into the LCEs as a sacrificial domain through blending. Our focus is to fundamentally understand the phase separation behavior of homopolymer in LCE and the relationship between parameters and structure changes, thereby evaluating the actuation performance of the resulting LCEs with controllable porous structures.