Liquid crystal elastomers via thiol-ene photopolymerization

Abstract

A process for forming of LCEs via a one-step thiol-ene photopolymerization. The thiolene photopolymerization reaction utilizes an ene monomer (e.g., a liquid crystal ene or diene), a thiol monomer (e.g., a non-liquid crystalline thiol or a liquid crystalline thiol), and a thiol crosslinker, with an initiator such as a photoinitiator. In some embodiments, an alignable liquid crystal elastomer is formed from nothing more than liquid crystal ene monomer(s), liquid crystalline or non-liquid crystalline thiol monomer(s), a thiol crosslinker and an initiator. This reaction is amenable to surface-enforced alignment, which enables high-fidelity inscription of complex director profiles. The LCE composition can be directly tailored by the concentration of a multifunctional thiol crosslinker.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.