SPP 2171 Workshop: "Wetting of Flexible, Adaptive, and Switchable Substrates"

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are an exceptional framework for highly active and functional soft matter. Briefly, LCEs couple the anisotropic LC director to a soft polymer network resulting in a zoo of phase-dependent responsive properties including reversible optical switching, mechanical stiffening, and shape-shifting in response to heat, light, or magnetic/electric fields. Here, we obtain reversible surface instabilities in LCEs with large amplitude features that are strikingly similar to that of rose petals and display temperature-responsive water pinning properties. Further, the ability to program arbitrary shape-changes, such as a smooth film that morphs into a replica of a lupin leaf, offers a route to cheaply and quickly produce functional surface roughening for wetting applications.