Effective thermal management is essential for ensuring the reliability of electronic devices. However, conventional thermal management technologies often require significant space or consume substantial power, which limits system integration and alters the electromagnetic performance, including operating bandwidth and efficiency. Here, a zero-power-consumption, self-adaptive mechanical metasurface is introduced that provides dual-mode thermal management. Composed of liquid crystal elastomer and copper, the periodically arranged units harness a thermally driven strain mismatch between these materials to achieve temperature-dependent structural reconfiguration. This mechano-thermal transduction mechanism passively converts excess heat into mechanical energy, thereby providing efficient thermal management for multiple electronic devices in this experimental demonstration. As a proof of concept, by designing the deep-subwavelength unit cells of metasurface without perturbing the surface current distribution of a Vivaldi antenna, it is shown that the mechanical reconfiguration can be decoupled from electromagnetic functionality, thereby enabling the integration of adaptive thermal management with stable electromagnetic performance. This framework effectively combines multi-physics functionality, encompassing thermal, mechanical, and electromagnetic domains. This work not only reveals a previously unexplored application for stimuli-responsive materials but also holds significant promise for various applications, including advanced communication and wearable systems.
Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have broad application potential in flexible robots and actuators. However, developing practical flexible actuators with simple sensing capability and self-adhesive properties remains a key challenge in this field. Inspired by the rapid tongue-ejection and capture mechanisms observed in certain animals, an energy-storage ejection actuator based on electrothermal stimulation of LCEs was designed. An amide bond (AM) intermediate was introduced into the liquid crystal polymer to fabricate the AM-LCE film, forming a strong microphase separation structure through hydrogen-bond interactions between the amide groups. This configuration enhanced the breaking tensile strength (5 MPa) and actuating strain (32.8 %) of the LCE film while effectively reducing the isotropic–anisotropic phase transition temperature ( T NI ∼56.5 °C). Based on a strain mismatch strategy, the AM-LCE film, polyimide (PI) heating film and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film were integrated into an energy-storage ejection structure to effectively address the problem of interfacial delamination between layers. The thickness and pre-stretching ratio of the AM-LCE and PDMS films were optimised to enable rapid ejection, grasping, and adhesion at 12 V, with a response time of 1–9 s. This study further broadens the design framework of LCE-based materials and demonstrates their potential applications in bionic ejection actuators.
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）