Supramolecular hydrogen bond enables Kapton nanofibers to reinforce liquid-crystalline polymers for light-fueled flight

We report fabrication of photoresponsive liquid-crystalline polymers reinforced with highly-oriented Kapton nanofibers with a supramolecular hydrogen bonding interface. To enhance the interfacial strength, hydroxyl groups are introduced into the side chain of azobenzene-containing liquid-crystalline polymers, forming hydrogen bonds with the Kapton nanofibers, directly imaged by nano-FTIR. Interestingly, the composite film exhibits the hierarchical structure of dragonfly wings, while demonstrating relatively high elastic modulus (1.64 GPa), reduced modulus (72.8 GPa), and nanohardness (4.5 GPa); 20–30 times higher than natural dragonfly wings. The enhanced mechanical performance and bilayer structure enables the composite film to exhibit rapid photoresponsive behaviors independent of the direction of illumination, due to an unconventional deformation mechanism arising from the interactions at the fiber-polymer interface. In addition, the flapping frequency and bending angle of the composite films can be continuously tuned for a single device (0.1–5 Hz, and 1.5–15.8°) by modifying the pulsed photoirradiation. The composite films are assembled into an artificial dragonfly device, and the light-driven flight aerodynamics are demonstrated in windy conditions. These not only provide a solution of micro-aircraft wings, but also offer a good bionic model for emulating dragonfly wings.