Nanoscale Kevlar Liquid Crystal Aerogel Fibers
Zengwei Liu, Jing Lyu, Yi Ding, Yaqian Bao, Zhizhi Sheng, Nan Shi, Xuetong Zhang
Abstract
), and self-cleaning performance (with a water contact angle of 154°). The superhydrophobic NKLC aerogel fibers can cyclically transform between aerogel and gel states, while gel fibers involving different building block orientation degrees display distinguishable brightness under polarized light. Based on these performances, digital textiles woven or embroidered with high- and low-orientated NKLC aerogel fibers enable up to 6.0 Gb information encryption in one square meter and on-demand decryption. Therefore, it can be envisioned that the tuning of the building blocks' orientation degree will be an appropriate strategy to endow performance to the liquid crystal aerogel fibers for potential applications beyond thermal insulation.