responsive materials | SRM-Lab

Topological transformation of cellular microstructures

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Cellular microstructures can undergo large, reversible topological transformations when coupled with liquid-mediated mechanical instabilities. This project explores how surface forces, geometry, and elastic deformation can be harnessed to reconfigure microscale architectures in response to environmental cues.

By programming the geometry and interactions of cellular structures, liquid-induced transformations provide a route toward adaptive materials with switchable porosity, tunable mechanics, and reconfigurable surface properties.

Photoswitches

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Photoswitches provide a molecular route to materials that can respond, adapt, and reconfigure under light. This project explores how light-responsive molecular units, such as spiropyrans, can be incorporated into soft polymer networks to regulate swelling, mechanics, and environmental response.

By connecting molecular photoisomerization to network-scale material behavior, photoswitchable hydrogels offer design principles for adaptive soft materials, optical control, and stimuli-responsive actuation.

Eliciting diverse motion trajectories in a single-material micropost

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Liquid crystalline elastomer microstructures can transform molecular alignment into complex, programmable motion. This project explores how single-material microposts can be designed to generate diverse motion trajectories, including bending, twisting, oscillatory, and non-reciprocal actuation, by encoding anisotropy across molecular, microstructural, and geometric length scales.

These systems provide a materials-based route to soft robotic motion without relying on conventional motors or multi-material assemblies. By programming internal order and responsive mechanics, we aim to create microactuators that exhibit rich, adaptive, and autonomous behaviors under external stimuli.