## 3 Bio-Inspired Application Prospects
The authors concluded that the polysiloxane-based LCE system exhibits an astonishing pro in building multilayer hierarchical structures, which mimic a distinct plant tendril, which can also perform bending and chiral twisting (left-handed and right-handed) operations. Herein, the authors performed near-infrared light (center wavelength: 808 \(\pm\) 3 nm, output power: 8 W) twisting actuation of the bilayer LCE ribbons. The change in the temperature caused by the heating effect of near-infrared light was prudently recorded using a thermal imager (FLUKE Ti90) to examine the curling behavior of LCE ribbons [76; 80]. Figure 10: The chiral dopants in addition to azobenzene monomers and crosslinkers used by [PERSON] et al. [78] to prepare liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs). Mimicking underwater soft-bodied sea invertebrate's locomotor movements is challenging. Precisely controlled deformations and physicochemical properties of developed light-driven liquid crystal gels (LCGs) by [PERSON] et al. [81] promisingly control unhindered dynamic shape deformations and having substantial applications in technologies such as soft robots. The authors demonstrated different modes of underwater locomotion, by remotely actuating LCGs. Figure 12A schematically demonstrates the swimming mechanism of _Hexabranchus sanguineus_ (Spanish dancer) based on a large-scale bending undulation along its central trunk. Figure 12B illustrates the schematic hybrid molecular alignment summarizing undulating flexion of the trunk in sea slugs. Figure 12C represents the chemical structure of mesogenic monomers and the photothermal agent used to prepare LCGs by [PERSON] et al. [81]. From thermal actuation investigations and finite-element simulations, the authors predicted huge and fast photothermal actuation of LCG samples in aqua media at ambient conditions (23 \({}^{\circ}\)C). the underwater bending of LCGs was performed by illuminating a 532-nm laser beam with different input powers. It was observed that the photothermal response of LCG-70 is almost 30 times higher than its pristine form. The studies revealed that the mechanical relaxation times in oscillatory mode is around 0.2 s [81]. Figure 11: (**a**) The photograph of a cucumber plant tendril with bending and chiral twisting distortions (**b**,**c**). The bilayer LCE ribbon with 45\({}^{\circ}\) and \(-\)45\({}^{\circ}\), respectively, angle between the top and bottom layer was irradiated under an 808 nm near-infrared light for 8 s. Adapted with permission from Reference [80], Springer Nature, 2016. As depicted in Figure 13a,b, [PERSON] et al. constructed soft photo-actuators based on LCPs driven by sunlight. The authors prepared agarose polymer films with homogeneously dispersed F-azo-1 compound. The films were equipped with piezoelectric transducer is polyvinylidene dilfluoride (PVDF) at the edge as shown in Figure 13b. When the film was exposed to sunlight, the instantly generated bending movement of the films was transferred to the PVDF generator, resulting in an open-circuit alternating voltage signal. An alternating voltage signal of 0.164 V was generated by this solar actuator (F-azo@AG) for continuous sunlight illumination of 6 s [82]. It was noted that many researchers are actively involved in visible-light responsive azopolymers considering damaging effects of UV radiation. For photo-actuators, various mechanical motions such as twirling, bending, contraction, rotation, twisting, and other motions for photo-actuators can be triggered by  
Figure 12: Shape morphing in a sea slug and artificial monolithic analogs from liquid crystal gels (LCGs). (**A**) An _Hexabranchus 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.