Abstract
Three-dimensional printing of soft actuators offers a great potential for creating flexible and adaptable structuresin diverse applications such as artificial muscles, medical devices and soft robots. Digital light processing (DLP) isparticularly effective in fabricating complex 3D structures with high resolution. Here we present an approach toDLP 3D print liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) with controlled properties by incorporating non-mesogenic linkers.By varying the length of these linkers, the thermo-mechanical properties, including the nematic-isotropic tran-sition temperature (90 to 36 ◦C) and the elastic modulus (1 to 57 MPa), can be fine-tuned. The potential of thismethod is shown by DLP 3D printing LCE structures that exhibit tunable shape recovery behaviour. Thisapproach paves the way of 4D printing technology and enhances the capabilities of 3D-printed soft actuators tomeet the requirements of specific applications.