Elastomer

Materials science

Soft robotics

Actuator

Computer science

Self-healing

Biomimetics

Pneumatic actuator

Alternative medicine

Camouflage

Nanotechnology

Smart material

Artificial intelligence

Composite material

Morphing

Medicine

Liquid crystal

Optoelectronics

Pathology

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

In nature, many mysterious creatures capable of deformation camouflage, color camouflage, and self-healing have inspired scientists to develop various biomimetic soft robots. However, the systematic integration of all the above functionalities into a single soft actuator system still remains a challenge. Here we chemically introduce a multi-stimuli-responsive tetraarylsuccinonitrile (TASN) chromophore into a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) network through a facile thiol-ene photoaddition method. The obtained TASN-LCE soft actuators not only exhibit reversible shape-morphing and reversible color-changing behavior in response to heat and mechanical compression, but also show excellent self-healing, reprogramming and recycling characteristics. We hope that such a TASN-LCE actuator system endowed with dynamic distortion, thermo- and mechano-chromic camouflage, and self-healing functionalities would pave the way for further development of multifunctional biomimetic soft robotic devices.

Thermo‐ and Mechanochromic Camouflage and Self‐Healing in Biomimetic Soft Actuators Based on Liquid Crystal Elastomers