2020 Volume 33 Issue 1 Pages 71-76
Liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) have attracted much attention because of their macroscopic deformation to external stimuli such as heat or light-irradiation. Among them, thermal responsible polymers, in which their macroscopic structures are controlled by heat treatment, are one of the most attractive materials. Although the thermal responsive materials by thermal phase transition were developed in wide for the application to the electronic devices and sensors, few examples have been applied to practical uses because of their high transition temperatures. In this paper, the development of LCPs with low deformation temperatures was investigated aiming for the application to functional fibers responding to body temperature. The phase transition temperature was found to depend on the content of crosslinking unit, and the film deformation was controlled by the one-side photo-irradiation to change the degree of crosslinking between two sides.
