Issue 22, 2016

Grayscale gel lithography for programmed buckling of non-Euclidean hydrogel plates

Abstract

Shape programmable materials capable of morphing from a flat sheet into controlled three dimensional (3D) shapes offer promise in diverse areas including soft robotics, tunable optics, and bio-engineering. We describe a simple method of ‘grayscale gel lithography’ that relies on a digital micromirror array device (DMD) to control the dose of ultraviolet (UV) light, and therefore the extent of swelling of a photocrosslinkable poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAm) copolymer film, with micrometer-scale spatial resolution. This approach allows for effectively smooth profiles of swelling to be prescribed, enabling the preparation of buckled 3D shapes with programmed Gaussian curvature.

Graphical abstract: Grayscale gel lithography for programmed buckling of non-Euclidean hydrogel plates

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Mar 2016
Accepted
03 May 2016
First published
12 May 2016

Soft Matter, 2016,12, 4985-4990

Grayscale gel lithography for programmed buckling of non-Euclidean hydrogel plates

J. Na, N. P. Bende, J. Bae, C. D. Santangelo and R. C. Hayward, Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 4985 DOI: 10.1039/C6SM00714G

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