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Photo‐Induced Anomalous Deformation of Poly( N ‐Isopropylacrylamide) Gel Hybridized with an Inorganic Nanosheet Liquid Crystal Aligned by Electric Field
Author(s) -
Inadomi Takumi,
Ikeda Shogo,
Okumura Yasushi,
Kikuchi Hirotsugu,
Miyamoto Nobuyoshi
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201400333
Subject(s) - materials science , nanosheet , electric field , poly(n isopropylacrylamide) , silicone rubber , liquid crystal , adsorption , self healing hydrogels , polymerization , photothermal therapy , composite material , deformation (meteorology) , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , copolymer , chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Poly‐( N ‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) hydrogel films doped with uniaxially aligned liquid crystalline (LC) nanosheets adsorbed with a dye are synthesized and its anomalous photothermal deformation is demonstrated. The alignment of the nanosheet LC at the cm‐scale is easily achieved by the application of an in‐plane or out‐of‐plane AC electric field during photo‐polymerization. A photoresponsive pattern is printable onto the gel with μm‐scale resolution by adsorption of the dye through a pattern‐holed silicone rubber. When the gel is irradiated with light, only the colored part is photothermally deformed. Interestingly, the photo‐irradiated gel shows temporal expansion along one direction followed by anisotropic shrinkage, which is an anomalous behavior for a conventional PNIPA gel.