Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogen-Functionalized Liquid Crystal Elastomer Soft Actuators

An aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) soft actuator is fabricated through chemical incorporation of a four-alkenyl-armed tetraphenylethene-core cross-linker into a main-chain LCE matrice by a facile in situ two-step acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization/cross-linking method. The LCE sample is endowed with the ability to readily tune the photoluminescence property during the fully reversible, thermally induced shape morphing process, which is indeed attributed to the AIE characteristic of tetraphenylethene molecules predominately determined by temperature variation.