Some years ago a new type of soft-soft composites were prepared, called ‘Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal Elastomes‘ (PDLCE), with actuation geometries different from usual uniaxial one. Now, a new preparation procedure was optimized to obtained PDLCE able to be moldable in different shapes, which can be programmed depending on the temperature at which external forces are applied.
Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers as moldable shape-programmable material | Nature Communicationshttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36426-y
This work was recently published with the collaboration of the team of the Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana (Slovenia): Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers as moldable shape-programmable material, Nature Communications, 14, Article number: 764, (2023).
These materials are very interesting and promising for applications as smart materials, shape-memory materials, 3D printing moldable materials, and several researches are in progress.