This research is designed to develop photoresponsive polymeric materials, as well as incorporate new production methodologies and functionalization techniques.  Current research on stimuli-responsive polymeric materials relies mainly on highly cross-linked liquid crystals, which suffer from large area production difficulties, long response time, and inefficient alignment of mesogens.  To overcome these issues, our research aims to functionalize polymerized azobenzene moieties with Fe3O4 nanoparticles and electrospin the polymer in a magnetic field creating highly ordered polymers that allow for much deeper stimuli penetration.  These polymers should generate a quicker response and a much larger stimuli/reponse ratio.  The mats formed from the magnetic field assisted spinning will also be post-photopolymerized using a UV curable optical adhesive in order to increase the anisotropy of the system.  Once optimized, the methods developed can easily be scaled up for various applications, such as artificial muscles, sensors, and photonic motors.

Aligned photoresponsive nanofibers by magnetic field assisted electrospinning

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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