Low‐Temperature Driven Liquid Crystal Elastomer Fibers and Smart Terry Fabrics
Yichen Yao, Xuan Wang, Wenlong Huang, Wendi Wang, Ye Zhang, Siyi Bi, Guangwei Shao, Jinhua Jiang, Nanliang Chen, Huiqi Shao
Abstract
Abstract Liquid Crystal Elastomer (LCE) fibers capable of generating macroscopic reversible deformation under thermal stimulation are novel materials for fabric actuators. To reduce the actuation temperature threshold of LCE fibers and expand their application scope in textiles, this work designed a combined main‐chain and side‐chain LCE fiber using the solution spinning method. Incorporating monoacrylate‐functionalized liquid crystal monomers to form side‐chain groups creates ordered regions exhibiting nematic‐smectic phase separation within the macroscopically homogeneous elastomer. The obtained LCE fibers can undergo reversible deformation within a near‐ambient temperature range of 35–65 °C and exhibit relatively positive actuation performance (maximum actuation strain of 45%). Moreover, this study ingeniously combines the advantages of knitting technology with the actuation performance of LCE fibers, developing two types of smart terry fabrics and establishing corresponding loop models to predict terry morphology under varying temperature conditions. Smart terry fabrics can intelligently regulate the thermal comfort by adjusting the height of the terry loops to modulate the static air retention capacity between the fabric and the skin. This concept provides a novel approach for smart textiles to regulate human microenvironmental temperature in response to dynamic indoor‐outdoor scenario transitions, thereby expanding the potential applications of LCE fibers in textile actuators.