A nematic liquid crystal elastomer rotary engine
Takuya Ohzono, Hirohmi Watanabe, Eugene M Terentjev · 2025
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Description
Takuya Ohzono and co-authors build a tiny rotary engine out of liquid crystal rubber bands that contract under light. These elastomers pull harder than ordinary rubber when warmed, a muscle made of aligned molecules. Their 2025 prototype follows a classic rubber motor design: a star of contractile strips, four to twelve of them, arranged around a crankshaft.
White light heats the strips facing it, they shorten, and the wheel turns steadily. Modeling shows the balance plainly: contraction torque drives, the material's own internal friction brakes, and the engine settles at constant speed. Element count, light power, pre-tension, and size are each tuned in turn. Soft robotics readers get a working engine whose fuel is a lamp.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Takuya Ohzono, Hirohmi Watanabe, Eugene M Terentjev |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 39 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |