Mechanics of Smart Soft Materials

Key information

Lead supervisor: Dr Morgan Barnes
Application deadline: Ongoing
Project start date: 01 October 2026
Project duration: 4 years (full-time)
Location: UCL East Campus (Stratford, London)
Studentship funding provided: Home tuition fees (currently £6,215/year) and maintenance stipend (currently £22,780/year) for 3.5 years

PhD project description

Engineered soft materials such as rubber bands, foams, and sponges typically exhibit static, single-purpose behaviour. In contrast, biological soft solids display highly sophisticated and dynamic functionalities, including goosebumps for thermal regulation, rapid prey detection in Venus flytraps, and adaptive colour change in cuttlefish. To bridge this gap, smart materials are engineered to sense, respond to, and adapt to their environment. These materials offer opportunities for applications in intelligent microfluidic systems, soft robotics, and biomedical devices. Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) represent an excellent materials platform for achieving such complex, adaptive functionality due to their ability to dynamically change shape, stiffness, and optical properties. However, further advances in efficiency, mechanical strength, and responsiveness are required to enable practical applications.

In this project, you will combine polymer chemistry, polymer physics, and advanced manufacturing of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) to achieve faster and stronger actuation under lower-energy stimuli. The work will involve synthesizing LCEs using click chemistries, incorporating functional dopants such as carbon nanotubes, and characterizing their molecular structure and resulting thermal behaviour using techniques including differential scanning calorimetry, optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Mechanical and actuation performance will be studied through dynamic mechanical analysis and tensile testing to elucidate the coupling between microstructure, mechanical response, and actuation efficiency. These advances could be applied to soft robotics, smart skins, and dynamic nano-topographies.

Person specification

• Applicants are preferred to have first-class undergraduate and master’s degrees (or equivalent) in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline with interest in polymer experimental mechanics, polymer synthesis, smart materials and nanofabrication.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication skills, along with a stated interest in interdisciplinary research, are essential.
• Background in mechanical characterization or polymer synthesis is desirable.

• Fluency and clarity in spoken English as well as good written English in accordance with UCL English requirements (TOEFL>92 or IELTS>6.5).

   

Eligibility

Please note that the available funding supports tuition fees at the Home/UK rate. Students who are eligible to pay fees at the UK rate are welcome to apply. Please refer to our website for further information about Home tuition fee eligibility.

International students who are eligible to pay tuition fees at the Overseas rate are also welcome to apply, however the tuition fees covered by the studentship will be limited to the Home/UK level. International students will be required to find additional funding for the remaining Overseas tuition fees.

Applicants whose first language is not English are required to meet UCL’s English language entry requirements.

Please refer to this webpage for full eligibility criteria: Mechanical Engineering MPhil/PhD

How to apply

Eligible applicants should first contact Dr Morgan Barnes (morgan.barnes@ucl.ac.uk). Please enclose the following documents:

• A one-page statement outlining suitability for the project
• A two-page CV (including contact details of two referees).

After discussing the project with Dr Barnes, eligible applicants should also submit a formal PhD application via the UCL website.

The supervisory team will arrange interviews for short-listed candidates.