Fabrication of Fibrous Liquid Crystalline Polymer via Confinement
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Liquid crystalline polymers have been widely employed in soft actuators and materials field owing to its directional self-assembly capability. In hydrophilic media, liquid crystalline oligomers construct spherical micelle in order to lower the surface tension. However, recent study demonstrated the transformation of spherical liquid crystalline droplet to branched filamentous network originating from the molecular heterogeneity. In this study, we confined the liquid crystalline oligomers in a micromold to fabricate the high aspect ratio of liquid crystalline fibers. The balance between the surface tension and elastic energy became altered as the temperature decreases, resulting in the shape transition. We will also discuss the linearity of the liquid crystalline polymer fibers quantified via fractal dimension and lacunarity.