Soft actuators are recognized as the intelligent robotics of the future. The main difference with other systems is the degree of freedom present and the shape of the stimuli. In this work, we focus on light stimuli and how light interacts with nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and hematite nanoparticles.
We prepared a monomer based on azo compounds derived from methyl red. Methyl red is known as a photoisomerization agent.
LLiquid crystal polymers with azo compounds exhibit photoisomerization with a lower degree of freedom of molecular reorientation than non-polymeric systems. However, photoisomerization not only exerts a transition order-disorder but also generates a stress relaxation process between the polymer chains. Depending on the percentage of components is possible to build different configurations with more or less crosslinked degrees. To incorporate monomers that only have one polymerizable side is possible to obtain an elastomer system and if only using monomers with two polymerizable sides the crosslinking is higher.
The incorporation of nanomaterials allows for modifying mechanical properties and can also incorporate some degree of polarization.
Metamaterials have subwavelength periodic structures that manipulate electromagnetic waves. Typically, difficulties are encountered in fabricating this type of materials due to the sophisticated techniques involved in their creation. Bubble domains in chiral nematic liquid crystals present a skyrmion lattice which has periodicity regions along a cell, which allow the observation of unconventional light-matter interaction. However, the interaction dynamics between vortices presents a challenge to ensure the order of the lattice throughout the space it covers. In this work we study the use of liquid crystal microdroplets as potential wells and the clustering of topological defects in them.
The fronts are waves that connect two equilibria. The liquid crystals are no stranger to these phenomena. Front dynamics also was observed in other physical contexts, such as walls separating magnetic domains, fluidized granular states, chemical reactions, solidification, and combustion processes, and population dynamics, to mention a few. We find these phenomena in differents interface dynamics, as part of a robust phenomenon this ranging from chemistry and biology to physics. The propagation and dynamics of fronts depend on the nature of the states that are being connected. The invasion of a state into another is characterized usually by front propagation into unstable states. In the present work, we investigate the anisotropic front propagation close to phase transition SmA-N*. The bifurcation diagram shows a subcritical behavior, and the front speed is according to the mathematical model. A spatiotemporal diagram shows an evolution of the front with preferential direction.”
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