CLCE fibre production from oligomeric precursor liquid (IMAGE)
Caption
a, Synthesis process of the oligomer. b, Filaments can be drawn by pulling a needle out of an oligomer solution droplet (schematically illustrated in inset). The red arrow connects the droplet to its components listed in (a). c–e, Schematics (not to scale) illustrating the filament extraction from a syringe containing the oligomer solutioon (as indicated by the red arrow) onto the rotating mandrel (c) and the filament shape immediately after deposition (d) and after anisotropic deswelling (e). f,g, Idealized schematics (not to scale) illustrating the flow-aligned paranematic state at stage d and the ideal cholesteric structure with vertical helix promoted by anisotropic deswelling at stage e, respectively. The grey arrows relate identical features shown with different views in different panels, and the colour bar in the lower left corner of f indicates the director orientation with respect to the long axis of the filament. h, SEM image of CLCE fibre obtained by polymerizing the filament of the precursor liquid. i–k, Crossed-polarizer microscopy (i) and SEM images (j and k) of a 5-μm-thick cross-sectional slice of the fibre embedded in NOA glue (isotropic). Scale bar in k is 10 μm. BHT, butylated hydroxy toluene; TEA, triethylamine.
Credit
Geng, Y., Kizhakidathazhath, R. & Lagerwall, J.P.F. Robust cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer fibres for mechanochromic textiles. Nat. Mater. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01355-6
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License
CC BY