Fabrication and Tailoring of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Tubes: Toward Bio-compatible Microactuators for Organoid Cultures

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) with their unique combination of mechanical flexibility
and responsive actuation, hold immense potential for mimicking biological functions
and enabling advanced actuation systems. However, creating complex ground
state shapes for LCEs beyond basic sheets or fibres is challenging. The first part of
the thesis focuses on the fabrication of arbitrarily long tubular LCE actuators using
a continuous coaxial flow microfluidic technique. This scalable approach produces
hollow LCE tubes that can be actuated thermally to act as peristaltic pumps, moving
fluids in and out. This capability makes them suitable for use as synthetic vasculatures
in biological contexts, potentially delivering nutrients and oxygen to organoids
and waste removal from them.
In the second part, photoresponsive nematic LCE sheets are synthesized using oligomeric precursors functionalized with azobenzene. The photoactuation of these materials is systematically analyzed across different temperatures, with particular attention to the nematic-isotropic transition under UV light. These sheets performed well at physiological temperatures (30−37◦C), making them viable candidates for isothermal actuators embedded in biological systems, such as organoids functioning without harmful UV light, crucial for maintaining cell viability. Additionally, towards the end of the thesis, the biocompatibility of the LCE materials in organoids are also investigated focusing on their ability to function as peristaltic pumps in the future.
This thesis advances on the understanding and demonstrates how tailored LCE can
address critical challenges in biotechnology, including the need for scalability, biocompatibility and functionality. This work lays the foundation for integrating LCEs into
future organoid and soft robotics applications.