Related papers: Soft-Elasticity Optimises Dissipation in 3D-Printe…
Azo-dye-doped liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are known to show a strong photomechanical response. We report on experiments that suggest that photothermal heating is the underlying mechanism in surface-constrained geometry. In particular,…
Elastic strain engineering utilizes stress to realize unusual material properties. For instance, strain can be used to enhance the electron mobility of a semiconductor, enabling more efficient solar cells and smaller, faster transistors. In…
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a promising solution for handling the complexity of fabricating soft robots. However, the AM of hyperelastic materials is still challenging with a limited material range. Within this work, pellet-based 3D…
We propose an approach to measure surface elastic constants of soft solids. Generally, this requires one to probe interfacial mechanics at around the elastocapillary length scale, which is typically microscopic. Deformations of microscopic…
Solid interfaces have intrinsic elasticity. However, in most experiments, this is obscured by bulk stresses. Through microscopic observations of the contact-line geometry of a partially wetting droplet on an anisotropically stretched…
We study a three-dimensional ($3D$) liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) in the context of Finsler geometry (FG) modeling, where FG is a mathematical framework for describing anisotropic phenomena. The LCE is a $3D$ rubbery object and has…
Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) has been established as a powerful analytical technique for investigating the oxidation state, band structure, and dielectric properties of materials with exceptional spatial resolution. Inspired by…
Precise manipulation of shape-morphing responsive materials is crucial for applications in soft robotics and adaptive structures. While notable precision has been achieved in thin two-dimensional sheets, an accurate volumetric…
Strain engineering enables the direct modification of the atomic bonding and is currently an active area of research aimed at improving the electrocatalytic activity. However, directly measuring the lattice strain of individual catalyst…
In this paper, a novel fully 3D, microfluidic-oriented, gel-based, and low-cost highly stretchable resistive sensors have been presented. By the proposed method we are able to measure and discriminate all of the stretch, twist, and pressure…
Long range order and symmetry in heterogeneous materials architected on crystal lattices lead to elastic and inelastic anisotropies and thus limit mechanical functionalities in particular crystallographic directions. Here, we present a…
Macroscale robotic systems have demonstrated great capabilities of high speed, precise, and agile functions. However, the ability of soft robots to perform complex tasks, especially in centimeter and millimeter scale, remains limited due to…
Soft materials are ubiquitous in technological applications that require deformability, for instance, in flexible, water-repellent coatings. However, the wetting properties of pre-strained soft materials are only beginning to be explored.…
Elastic properties of soft, three-dimensional dimers, interacting through site-site n-inverse-power potential, are determined by computer simulations at zero temperature. The degenerate crystal of dimers exhibiting (Gaussian) size…
Polydomain liquid crystalline (nematic) elastomers have highly unusual mechanical properties, dominated by the dramatically non-linear stress-strain response that reflects stress-induced evolution of domain patterns. Here, we study the…
Liquid metals (LM) are embedded in an elastomer matrix to obtain soft composites with unique thermal, dielectric, and mechanical properties. They have applications in soft robotics, biomedical engineering, and wearable electronics. By…
We derive the effective energy density of thin membranes of liquid crystal elastomers as the Gamma-limit of a widely used bulk model. These membranes can display fine-scale features both due to wrinkling that one expects in thin elastic…
In this paper, we speculate on a possible application of Liquid Crystal Elastomers to the field of soft robotics. In particular, we study a concept for limbless locomotion that is amenable to miniaturisation. For this purpose, we formulate…
A general procedure to investigate the elastic response and calculate the elastic constants of stressed and unstressed materials through continuum field modeling, particularly the phase field crystal (PFC) models, is presented. It is found…
A crystal plasticity theory was developed for use in simulations of dynamic loading at high pressures and strain rates. At pressures of the order of the bulk modulus, compressions o(100%) may be induced. At strain rates o(10^9)/s or higher,…