title: Morphological appearances and photo-controllable coloration of dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal/polymer coaxial microfibers fabricated by coaxial electrospinning technique.
abstract: This study systematically investigates the morphological appearance of azo-chiral dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (DDCLC)/polymer coaxial microfibers obtained through the coaxial electrospinning technique and examines, for the first time, their photocontrollable reflection characteristics. Experimental results show that the quasi-continuous electrospun microfibers can be successfully fabricated at a high polymer concentration of 17.5 wt% and an optimum ratio of 2 for the feeding rates of sheath to core materials at 25 °C and a high humidity of 50% ± 2% in the spinning chamber. Furthermore, the optical controllability of the reflective features for the electrospun fibers is studied in detail by changing the concentration of the azo-chiral dopant in the core material, the UV irradiation intensity, and the core diameter of the fibers. Relevant mechanisms are addressed to explain the optical-control behaviors of the DDCLC coaxial fibers. Considering the results, optically controllable DDCLC coaxial microfibers present potential applications in UV microsensors and wearable smart textiles or swabs.
authors.forename: Jia-De
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Che-Pei
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lin-Jer
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yu-Chou
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Shuan-Yu
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Chia-Rong
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D003116:Color; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D008027:Light; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000379:methods*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions; D013696:Temperature; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D004396:Coloring Agents; D011108:Polymers; D012996:Solutions; C422409:liquid crystal polymer