Water-Responsive Liquid Crystal Polymers for Biological Applications

Materials which change shape in response to stimuli can perform work as artificial muscles, dynamic medical device coatings, and inducible drug delivery vehicles. Traditional actuators are unsuitable for applications in biological environments due to their large size, high power requirements, and incompatibility with aqueous environments. Developing small, untethered actuators which respond to biocompatible stimuli is essential to drive progress in materials engineering for biomedical applications. Polymers have shown promise as actuators enabled by changes in their environment; Shape memory polymers, hydrogels, and liquid crystal polymers rely on stimuli, such as heat, light, and chemical gradients to actuate. However, these emergent smart materials require further development to serve functional applications. Liquid crystal polymers have emerged as particularly promising smart materials because reversible shape change can be hardcoded into the molecular orientation, unlike shape memory polymers or hydrogels. The aim of my research is to use the self-assembly of liquid crystals to synthesize materials which can selectively actuate in biological and water-based environments.