Reprocessable Thermoset Soft Actuators

Widely used traditional thermosets are good candidates for construction of 3D soft actuators because of their excellent stability; however, it is generally acknowledged that they cannot be reprocessed. The time–temperature equivalence principle enables reprocessing of traditional liquid crystalline...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2019-11, Vol.58 (48), p.17474-17479
Main Authors: Yang, Yang, Terentjev, Eugene M., Zhang, Yubai, Chen, Qiaomei, Zhao, Yuan, Wei, Yen, Ji, Yan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuation
Actuators
Equivalence principle
High temperature
liquid crystalline thermosets
Liquid crystals
Reprocessing
reprogramming and welding
stable alignment
Thermosetting resins
time–temperature equivalence principle
Topology
Transesterification
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Summary:Widely used traditional thermosets are good candidates for construction of 3D soft actuators because of their excellent stability; however, it is generally acknowledged that they cannot be reprocessed. The time–temperature equivalence principle enables reprocessing of traditional liquid crystalline epoxy thermosets (LCETs) into 3D soft actuators. Even though the transesterification reaction of LCETs is extremely slow, it is fast enough to induce a topology rearrangement and subsequent reprocessing when prolonging the transesterification time according to aforementioned principle. Therefore, LCETs can be aligned by a simple procedure. The alignment is quite stable at high temperature and remains after more than 1000 heating–cooling actuation cycles. The resulting 3D soft actuators are remouldable, reprogrammable, reconfigurable, weldable, self‐healable, recyclable, and stable, which is impossible for any traditional thermosets and is therefore a compelling advance in terms of the applications open to 3D soft actuators. Liquid‐crystalline epoxy thermosets (LCETs) can be reprocessed into various complex 3D soft actuators by reconfiguring, reprogramming, and welding their structures. The slow transesterification reaction of LCETs is, nonetheless, fast enough to allow topology rearrangement and subsequent reprocessing when the transesterification time is prolonged according to the time–temperature equivalence principle.
ISSN:1433-7851
1521-3773
DOI:10.1002/anie.201911612