On March 13th, Yuxin You successfully defended her PhD thesis, titled “Programmed Dynamic Topographical Deformations in Liquid Crystal Polymers.
Yuxin focused on surface topographies, referring to the micro-scale textures of the outermost layer of a coating. They are crucial in determining how the surface looks and feels, as well as influencing the wettability, tribology, and optical properties of a coating. By dynamically manipulating the topographies, these surface properties can be modulated.
In her thesis, Yuxin develops liquid crystal polymers to fabricate these active coatings, exploring materials starting with short-chain polymer networks and expand her investigation to long-chain oligomer networks to add flexible properties. Building on this material development, Yuxin employs several fabrication processes to form the topographies. For instance, she uses the photoalignment technique to inscribe multiple defect patterns into the coating. The formed surfaces exhibit reversible topographical deformations when subjected to external stimuli, such as light and temperature. Based on these developed topographies, Yuxin demonstrated versatile surface functionalities, for example, fast optical switches, controllable friction, or even applying these to open and close the membrane for switchable gas permeability.
As is the HIM group’s standard, Yuxin unlocks another world of possibilities for liquid crystal polymers with her research.
Correspondence Mert Astam