Leveraging catechol chemistry to tackle toughness-softness-work capacity tradeoff in reprogrammable liquid crystal actuators

Enjian He, Yahe Wu (), Huan Liang, Hongtu Xu, Jiujiang Ji, Zhijun Yang, Yixuan Wang, Yen Wei and Yan Ji ()
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Enjian He: Tsinghua University
Yahe Wu: Beijing Institution of Technology
Huan Liang: Tsinghua University
Hongtu Xu: Tsinghua University
Jiujiang Ji: Tsinghua University
Zhijun Yang: Tsinghua University
Yixuan Wang: Tsinghua University
Yen Wei: Chung-Yuan Christian University
Yan Ji: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Dynamic chemistry endows liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) with reprogrammability, enabling the reversible modulation of actuation modes to adapt to diverse tasks and enhancing sustainability and lifecycle management. However, balancing toughness, softness, and work capacity remains challenging due to their inherent tradeoff, as these properties are essential for achieving high-performance and stable actuation. Here, inspired by mussel coordination chemistry, we design a macromolecular crosslinker that combines covalent crosslinking with coordination bonds to tackle this challenge. The optimized LCE achieves exceptional toughness of 28.5 MJ/m³ and low Young’s modulus of 3.1 MPa, with high-temperature toughness exceeding 9.3 MJ/m³ at 90 °C (25 °C above phase transition temperature, Ti) and reaching 5.5 MJ/m³ at 120 °C (55 °C above Ti), while maintaining work capacity of 416 kJ/m³. Increasing coordination bond content further improves toughness (up to 67.0 MJ/m³) without significantly altering modulus or work capacity. Additionally, incorporating different metal ions provides a strategy akin to stem cell differentiation, transforming a single base material into variants with distinct properties. This enables spatially heterogeneous materials, paving the way for highly integrated actuators with multifunctionality.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63836-x

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