Fig. 1.

Shape morphing in a sea slug and artificial monolithic analogs from LCGs. (A) An H. sanguineus (Spanish dancer) swimming with the bending undulation of its central trunk. (B) Schematic view of an artificial analog of the Spanish dancer’s central trunk made from LCG constructs that move by repeating shape morphing. The relaxed state on the left side corresponds to a splay molecular alignment, while the bent state on the right side corresponds to the photothermally deformed LCG construct with disordered molecules. (C) The chemical structure of mesogenic monomers and the photothermal agent used to realize the light-fueled deformation of LCNs and LCGs; X represents the amount of the 5CB added to the original LCN precursor mixture in weight percentage.