Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea.
Program in Environmental and Polymer Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Korea.
Molecules. 2022 Sep 1;27(17):5639. doi: 10.3390/molecules27175639.
In aqueous media, liquid crystalline droplets typically form spherical shapes in order to minimize surface energy. Recently, non-spherical geometry has been reported using molecular self-assembly of surfactant-stabilized liquid crystalline oligomers, resulting in branched and randomly oriented filamentous networks. In this study, we report a polymerization of liquid crystalline polymeric fibers within a micro-mold. When liquid crystal oligomers are polymerized in freely suspended aqueous media, curvilinear and randomly networked filaments are obtained. When reactive liquid crystalline monomers are oligomerized in a micro-channel, however, highly aligned linear fibers are polymerized. Within a top-down microfabricated mold, a bottom-up molecular assembly was successfully achieved in a controlled manner by micro-confinement, suggesting a unique opportunity for the programming architecture of materials via a hybrid approach.
在水介质中，为了最小化表面能，液晶液滴通常形成球形。最近，通过表面活性剂稳定的液晶低聚物的分子自组装，已经报道了使用非球形几何形状，导致支化和随机取向的丝状网络。在这项研究中，我们报告了在微模具内聚合液晶聚合物纤维。当液晶低聚物在自由悬浮的水介质中聚合时，得到了曲线形和随机网络丝状物。然而，当反应性液晶单体在微通道中聚合时，高度取向的线性纤维被聚合。在自上而下的微加工模具中，通过微约束以可控的方式成功地实现了自下而上的分子组装，这为通过混合方法对材料的架构进行编程提供了独特的机会。
