Self-Sustained Liquid Crystal Elastomer Actuators with Geometric Zero-Elastic-Energy Modes.

Recently, a novel and fascinating actuation mode of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), known as geometric zero-elastic-energy modes (ZEEMs), has drawn intensive research interest. Based on this actuation mechanism, LCE actuators exhibit untethered, autonomous movements under external stimulations, demonstrating significant potential for applications in intelligent soft robots, autonomous energy conversion systems, and smart optical tuning components. This perspective provides a timely summary of the current research on LCE actuators based on ZEEMs and highlights their future development trends and prospects, which will be of great interest to broad communities of researchers in fields of LCEs, biomimetic smart materials, soft robotics, and actuators.