4D Printing of Freestanding Liquid Crystal Elastomers via Hybrid Additive Manufacturing
A hybrid 4D printing method is reported to fabricate freestanding liquid crystal elastomers “on-the-fly” by using laser-assisted direct ink writing. This process is integrated with Digital Light Processing for printing optional structural or sacrificial materials to create active architectures, such as active tensegrities, loading-bearing actuators, and 3D liquid crystal lattices, in a one-step additive process.