Extended Data Fig. 10: Detecting strain orientation using a CLCE fibre sewn into a cloth along a curve.
From: Robust cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer fibres for mechanochromic textiles
A CLCE fibre made from LCO1 that is green under ambient light in the relaxed state (a) is sewn into a stretchy black cloth along a continuous curve, such that the stitch changes orientation by 90∘ from the beginning to the end. Upon stretching the cloth vertically (b), the vertically sewn stitches turn violet while the horizontal ones retain their original green colour, and the intermediate stitches show a continuous color variation between green and blue depending on the relative angle between stitch and strain direction. For horizontal strain of the cloth (c), the fibre responds in the opposite way, the colour play now ranging from green to violet from vertical to horizontal stitches. The photos are still frames from Supplementary Video 8.
