Atypical Liquid Crystal Elastomers
from Materials Innovation to Scalable processing and Transformative applications
The (almost complete) ALCEMIST team at the University of Cambridge, September 2026
ALCEMIST challenges the conventional engineering mindset where passive static components (beams, wires, joints) become instead driven by active, dynamic parts (motors, dampers, sensors...). Our innovative materials will enable the combined functionality in a single component. This bold ambition is feasible because our research will unlock the full potential of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), unique responsive materials that reversibly change shape, color, adhesiveness, and/or damping properties triggered by stimuli like heat, light, humidity or strain.
We propose a radically new sustainable materials platform based on polysaccharides, functionalizing precursors such that anyone—using click chemistry—can make LCEs that are powerful yet biocompatible and biodegradable, at one-tenth of the cost of state-of-the-art LCEs. We also introduce new approaches to processing these LCE precursors, based on controlled complex flow patterns and compatible with rapid and large-scale LCE production, and we aim to develop a theoretical understanding of LCE dynamics which is currently missing.
With all these components in place, we will demonstrate the potential of LCEs in six scenarios, carefully selected for their striking broad impact: for instance, heat engines running on industry waste heat; kinetic buildings that autonomously adapt to variations in environmental conditions; and suture threads that change color upon stretching, ideal for robotic surgery.
We propose a radically new sustainable materials platform based on polysaccharides, functionalizing precursors such that anyone—using click chemistry—can make LCEs that are powerful yet biocompatible and biodegradable, at one-tenth of the cost of state-of-the-art LCEs. We also introduce new approaches to processing these LCE precursors, based on controlled complex flow patterns and compatible with rapid and large-scale LCE production, and we aim to develop a theoretical understanding of LCE dynamics which is currently missing.
With all these components in place, we will demonstrate the potential of LCEs in six scenarios, carefully selected for their striking broad impact: for instance, heat engines running on industry waste heat; kinetic buildings that autonomously adapt to variations in environmental conditions; and suture threads that change color upon stretching, ideal for robotic surgery.
Key scientific goals
Sustainable and circular LCEs
Scalable processing
Understanding LCE dynamics
Transformative application scenarios
Switchable adhesives
Waste heat-driven engines
Autonomous heliotracking building skins
Self-cleaning filters
Peristaltic organoid vasculature
Strain-reporting suture thread
Funding
Principal investigators
Left: Maria Helena Godinho, Nova Lisbon
Middle: Jan Lagerwall, University of Luxembourg (coordinator of ALCEMIST)
Right: Eugene Terentjev, Cambridge University
Photo taken on the beach in Costa da Caparica, Portugal, at the first ALCEMIST PI meeting on 4 April 2025.
Middle: Jan Lagerwall, University of Luxembourg (coordinator of ALCEMIST)
Right: Eugene Terentjev, Cambridge University
Photo taken on the beach in Costa da Caparica, Portugal, at the first ALCEMIST PI meeting on 4 April 2025.