Thermo- and Mechanochromic Camouflage and Self-Healing in Biomimetic Soft Actuators Based on Liquid Crystal Elastomers.

In nature, many mysterious creatures capable of deformation camouflage, color camouflage, and self-healing have inspired scientists to develop various biomimetic soft robots. However, the systematic integration of all the above functionalities into a single soft actuator system still remains a challenge. Here we chemically introduce a multi-stimuli-responsive tetraarylsuccinonitrile (TASN) chromophore into a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) network through a facile thiol-ene photoaddition method. The obtained TASN-LCE soft actuators not only exhibit reversible shape-morphing and reversible color-changing behavior in response to heat and mechanical compression, but also show excellent self-healing, reprogramming and recycling characteristics. We hope that such a TASN-LCE actuator system endowed with dynamic distortion, thermo- and mechano-chromic camouflage, and self-healing functionalities would pave the way for further development of multifunctional biomimetic soft robotic devices.