The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

 Macroscopically aligned liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are soft actuating materials capable of programmable and reversible shape changes in response to external stimuli. Recently, LCE fibers have attracted significant attention due to their flexible designability for complex actuation and large surface area that enables fast response. To date, most reported LCE fibers undergo contraction upon heating above the isotropization temperature (Ti). This behavior originates from mesogen alignment along the fiber axis. In this study, we develop a versatile method to fabricate LCE fibers with controllable actuation mode (either contraction or elongation). Notably, the actuation direction temperature and performance of the LCE fibers can be systematically tuned through the relative composition of two distinct mesogens. This work establishes a single-fiber platform with programmable actuation direction and performance for advanced soft actuation applications.