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Communication

Nematic Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Grating and Microwire Fabricated by Micro-Molding in Capillaries

  1. Renbo Wei1,
  2. Yaning He1,
  3. Xiaogong Wang1,*,
  4. Patrick Keller2,*

Article first published online: 20 DEC 2012

DOI: 10.1002/marc.201200667

Issue

Macromolecular Rapid Communications

Macromolecular Rapid Communications

Volume 34, Issue 4, pages 330–334, February 25, 2013

Additional Information

How to Cite

Wei, R., He, Y., Wang, X. and Keller, P. (2013), Nematic Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Grating and Microwire Fabricated by Micro-Molding in Capillaries. Macromol. Rapid Commun., 34: 330–334. doi: 10.1002/marc.201200667

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China

  2. 2

    Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, CNRS UMR 168, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248, Paris Cedex 05, France

*Department of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 13 FEB 2013
  2. Article first published online: 20 DEC 2012
  3. Manuscript Revised: 13 NOV 2012
  4. Manuscript Received: 7 OCT 2012

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Keywords:

  • elastomers;
  • grating;
  • liquid crystal polymers;
  • microwire;
  • soft-lithography

Abstract

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.

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