ALCEMIST challenges the conventional engineering mindset where passive static components (beams, wires, joints) are driven by active dynamic ones (motors, dampers, sensors); our innovative materials 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, colour, adhesive or damping properties triggered by stimuli like heat, light, humidity or strain.

We propose a radically new sustainable materials platform based on polysaccharides, functionalising 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 the 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, 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 colour upon stretching, ideal for robotic surgery.