Template‐Based Fabrication of Nanometer‐Scaled Actuators from Liquid‐Crystalline Elastomers

Abstract

Nanowires are prepared from liquid-crystalline elastomers by the use of anodized aluminum oxide as a template. The obtained rodlike structures are monodisperse and possess a uniform alignment. They show reversible actuation—a change in length of roughly 40%—during phase transition from the nematic to the isotropic phase.