Robust cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer fibres for mechanochromic textiles

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Science
• Textile Engineering

Background:

• Mechanically responsive textiles offer significant potential in fashion and healthcare.
• Cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers (CLCEs) exhibit strong mechanochromic responses, ideal for smart textiles.
• Producing CLCE fibers suitable for textiles is difficult due to Plateau-Rayleigh instability in precursor solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for creating long, mechanically robust CLCE fibers.
• To overcome the Plateau-Rayleigh instability during fiber spinning.
• To demonstrate the mechanochromic properties and textile suitability of the resulting CLCE fibers.

Main Methods:

• Balancing viscoelastic properties of the CLCE precursor solution to prevent droplet formation.
• Extruding the stabilized precursor solution to form continuous filaments.
• Characterizing the mechanochromic response (color change with strain) and mechanical robustness of the fibers.

Main Results:

• Achieved long, mechanically robust CLCE filaments by controlling precursor viscoelasticity.
• Demonstrated fast, progressive, and reversible mechanochromic responses (red to blue, 155 nm shift) upon stretching up to 200%.
• Successfully integrated the CLCE fibers into garments, showing durability through sewing, stretching, and machine washing.

Conclusions:

• A simple method enables the production of high-performance CLCE fibers for textile applications.
• The developed CLCE fibers possess desirable mechanochromic and mechanical properties for wearable technology.
• These fibers are suitable for applications requiring autonomous strain sensing or deformation detection.