Porous Hybrid Soft Actuators From Liquid Crystal Networks and Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal Templated Hydrogels
Abstract
ABSTRACT Liquid crystal networks (LCNs) have shown great utility in soft robotics as artificial muscles. Yet, their potential in biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, remains largely untapped. This can be partly attributed to LCNs’ limited compatibility with biological environments, and non‐porous microstructure and morphology. The current study focuses on developing actuators with improved porosity by creating constructs based on LCNs hybridized with liquid crystal hydrogels (LCHs). In our design, LCNs provide mechanical integrity and stimuli‐responsiveness, while LCHs introduce structural porosity and precise control over deformation. To manipulate LCHs’ microstructure and program the deformation of hybrid actuators, we used magnetically aligned lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLC) derived from disodium cromoglicate (DSCG) to template desired morphologies in acrylamide (AAM)‐based LCHs. Our results revealed that the integration of LCHs into LCNs dramatically increases the porosity of the construct. Interestingly, the distinct alignment and stimuli‐responsiveness of LCN and LCH layers can be leveraged to obtain complex programmable deformation. We believe that the inherent porosity and biocompatibility of LCHs can be used to expand the application of LCNs in therapeutic delivery and in enabling safer interaction with biological tissues, positioning them as promising materials for use in minimally invasive medical devices and adaptive implants.
Article Details
Authors (14)
Ramón Santiago Herrera Restrepo
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional (IQTC) Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
Irving Hafed Tejedor García
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada
Matthew Gene Scarfo
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada
Negin Bouzari
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada
Negar Rajabi
Department of Chemical Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada
Olga Bantysh
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB) Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
Joel Torres‐Andrés
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB) Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
Christopher W. V. James
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional (IQTC) Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
Maria Guix
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Institut de Química Teòrica i Computacional (IQTC) Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
Amirreza Aghakhani
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomolecular Systems, University of Stuttgart
Jordi Ignés‐Mullol
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB) Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona Spain
Salvador Pané
Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zürich, Tannenstrasse 3, Zürich CH-8092, Switzerland
Josep Puigmartí‐Luis
Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física Universitat de Barcelona C/ Martí i Franquès, 1–11 Barcelona 08028 Spain
Hamed Shahsavan
Department of Chemical Engineering Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology Institute for Polymer Research University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada