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Nematic Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Grating and Microwire Fabricated by Micro‐Molding in Capillaries
Author(s) -
Wei Renbo,
He Yaning,
Wang Xiaogong,
Keller Patrick
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201200667
Subject(s) - materials science , optical microscope , scanning electron microscope , elastomer , composite material , grating , molding (decorative) , liquid crystal , microstructure , substrate (aquarium) , microscopy , prepolymer , optics , optoelectronics , polyurethane , oceanography , physics , geology
A new approach is developed to fabricate highly oriented mono‐domain LCE nano/microstructures through micro‐molding in capillaries. Gratings and microwires as two typical examples are fabricated and characterized by polarizing optical microscopy, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The gratings with precisely controlled sizes and smooth surface are obtained by filling the channels with a nematic monomer mixture followed by the photo‐crosslinking. After peeling off the gratings from the substrate, the free‐standing microwires are obtained. A uniform orientation of the mesogenic units is observed for the molds with channel width less than 20 μm. Reversible thermomechanical effect is demonstrated by using the microwires obtained through this approach.