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Photodeformable CLCP material: study on photo-activated microvalve applications

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Abstract

A kind of photodeformable polymer material, crosslinked liquid-crystalline polymer (CLCP) incorporated with azobenzene moieties, is studied as microvalve membrane actuator for microfluidic system applications. In the photomechanical analysis, the photo-induced bending effect of such polymer film is equivalent to a moment T m and an axial force N m applied on it, which are related to irradiation time and intensity of the driving UV light. A linear elastic beam model is established to calculate the maximal force that the valve actuator can resist and to analyze the deformation at any irradiation time in FEA. An experimental setup is built to record the flow rate in one operate cycle under various irradiation or preload conditions. The open time can reach 8 s and the close time 6 s. The results show that CLCP films have great potential in microvalve applications in biological engineering, drug delivering, etc. It has advantages of wireless, remote control and green energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 Cao’an Road, Shanghai, 201804, China

    Maolin Chen, Haitao Huang, Yutian Zhu, Zhao Liu & Xing Xing

  2. Department of Materials Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Futao Cheng & Yanlei Yu

Authors
  1. Maolin Chen
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  2. Haitao Huang
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  3. Yutian Zhu
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  4. Zhao Liu
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  5. Xing Xing
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  6. Futao Cheng
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  7. Yanlei Yu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yutian Zhu, Zhao Liu or Yanlei Yu.

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Chen, M., Huang, H., Zhu, Y. et al. Photodeformable CLCP material: study on photo-activated microvalve applications. Appl. Phys. A 102, 667–672 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-010-6103-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-010-6103-4

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