Preparation of actuating fibres of oriented main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers by a wetspinning process

We present a versatile method to prepare oriented fibres with a defined thickness from main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers. A microfluidic setup is utilized to inject a solution of a photo-crosslinkable smectic A main-chain polymer into a co-flowing stream of silicone oil. Diffusion of the solvent into the oil yields solid polymer filaments that are crosslinked in a continuous way by UV-irradiation. The obtained fibres are highly oriented and show a reversible and significant contraction during the liquid crystal's phase transition.