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Photoresponsive Liquid Crystal Elastomers

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Azo Polymers

Part of the book series: Soft and Biological Matter ((SOBIMA))

Abstract

In this chapter, one very interesting function of azo polymers is discussed, which is unique for the azobenzene-containing liquid crystal polymers with light cross-linking. These azo polymer networks, which are classified as azo liquid crystal elastomers, show many interesting properties and potential applications in actuators, shape memory, and others. Similar to the above two chapters, the discussion starts from the basic concepts and background as the introduction. Then, material design and preparation, structure–property relationship, mechanism, and models are sequentially discussed. Meanwhile, several selected cases are presented to show the characteristics and potential applications of the functions.

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  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Xiaogong Wang

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  1. Xiaogong Wang
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Wang, X. (2017). Photoresponsive Liquid Crystal Elastomers. In: Azo Polymers. Soft and Biological Matter. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53424-3_6

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