4D Printed Multifunctional Composites with Tunable Shape Morphing
Résumé
Multifunctional composites can accomplish multi-tasks such as shape morphing, sensing, or load bearing using a single structure. Smart materials including liquid crystal elastomers (LCE) and shape memory polymers (SMP) have long been used as the primary components of multifunctional composites because of their shape and property changes in response to external stimuli. However, LCEs can generate rapid, large, and reversible shape changes but are soft and require a constant temperature to retain their deformed shape; SMPs have favorable mechanical properties but few can achieve reversible actuations. Moreover, both LCEs and SMPs have limited capability for tunable shape morphing. Multi-material 3D printing of smart materials, also known as 4D printing, has seen significant advances enabling the fabrication of smart composites with novel functionality. In this work, we leverage multi-material 4D printing to create a LCE-SMP composite that can not only achieve rapid and reversible shape changes, but also cooling-rate regulated tunable shape morphing. The latter is achieved by harnessing the distinct time-dependent thermomechanical properties of the LCE and the SMP. Furthermore, the composite can exhibit a high stiffness at low temperature and can support heavy loads. The LCE-SMP composite hence offers a novel approach to achieve tunable, multimodal shape morphing while maintaining high stiffness for future engineering applications.
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