A glassy bending-mode polymeric actuator which deforms in response to solvent polarity

We investigate a series of glassy polymer actuators which are found to bend rapidly and reversibly in response to changes in the solvent environment. The actuators are based on hydrogen-bonded liquid crystal networks, and bending motion is created using director profiles engineered to take advantage of the network swelling anisotropy. Strongly polar solvents easily swell the network, forcing bending in one direction, while the less polar solvents extract water to force bending in the opposite direction.