Photocontrollable Liquid‐Crystalline Actuators

Coupling photochromic molecules with liquid crystalline (LC) materials enables one to reversibly photocontrol unique LC features such as phase transition, photoalignment, and molecular cooperative motion. LC elastomers show photomechanical and photomobile properties, directly converting light energy into mechanical energy. In well-defined LC block copolymers, regular patternings of nanostructures in macroscopic scales are fabricated by photo-manipulation of LC actuators.