Synthesis of Programmable Main-chain Liquid-crystalline Elastomers Using a Two-stage Thiol-acrylate Reaction

A novel methodology is presented to synthesize and program main-chain liquid-crystalline elastomers using commercially available starting monomers. A wide range of thermomechanical properties was tailored by adjusting the amount of crosslinker, while the actuation performance was dependent on the amount of applied strain during programming.