Thermal-optical analysis of polymer-liquid crystal microfibers

Abstract

In this paper, the analysis of optically responsive microfibers with uniaxially ordered liquid crystal (LC) molecules at their cores is discussed. LC microfibers were electrospun from a solution of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) and N-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4$-butylaniline (MBBA) using absolute alcohol as a solvent. Two parallel copper (Cu) collectors were used to obtain ordered fibers. The microfibers with oriented LC molecules were well fabricated at a voltage of 5 kV. A thermal-optical analysis revealed that the fibers were responsive to temperature. The rise of temperature from nematic to isotropic phase of LC decreased the LC intensity under a polarized optical microscope (POM).