Elsevier

Tetrahedron

Volume 73, Issue 33, 17 August 2017, Pages 4963-4967
Tetrahedron

A four-blade light-driven plastic mill based on hydrazone liquid-crystal networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tet.2017.06.041Get rights and content
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Abstract

The first light-driven plastic mill is developed, which converts the incoming light directly into a continuous rotation. This device is composed of four blades made of hydrazone-based liquid crystal polymer films able to bend under focused light irradiation and to create a force causing the rotation of the mill. The mechanism of motion originates from the fast photo-thermal isomerization around the Cdouble bondN bond of hydrazones. We show that by accelerating the rate of the thermal Z to E back-isomerization of hydrazones, macroscopic deformation with fast strain rate can be obtained. The rapid motion of the film is the key factor in obtaining the continuous rotatory motion of the mill. These results broaden the range of molecular switches available for macroscopic motion of light-driven organic devices and offer new insights for single-step energy conversion in soft robotics and automated systems.

Keywords

Energy conversion
Hydrazones
Liquid crystal networks
Macroscopic motion
Non-equilibrium processes

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The authors congratulate Prof. Ben Feringa on being awarded the 2016 Tetrahedron Prize and Nobel Prize in Chemistry.