Combining Simple Deformations to Elicit Complex Motions and Directed Swimming of Smart Organic Crystals with Controllable Thickness

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie Vol. 137; no. 5
• Main Authors: Zhu, Xiaotong, Xie, Mengyuan, Gao, Lin, Li, Liang, Naumov, Panče, Yu, Qi, Wang, Guoming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 27.01.2025
• Subjects: [4+4] cycloaddition; Actuation; Anthracene; anthracene derivatives; Aspect ratio; Complexity; Controllability; Crystal growth; crystalline robots; Crystallization; Crystals; Deformability; Deformation effects; dynamic crystals; Formability; Mechanical properties; Microrobots; Organic crystals; Robot control; Robots; Robust control; Soft robotics; Swimming; Thickness; Ultraviolet radiation

The lack of control over the crystal growth in a systematic way currently stands as an unsurmountable impediment to the preparation of dynamic crystals as soft robots; in effect, the mechanical effects of molecular crystals have become a subject of scattered reports that pertain only to specific cry...