Abstract
Cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers (CLCEs) change color under strain, offering attractive prospects for soft robotics and photonic devices. However, the helical structure of CLCEs averages out the exceptional anisotropy and soft elasticity of the nematic phase, leaving little scope for also using the director orientation to program their thermal or mechanical actuation. Here, we develop programmable CLCE hollow fibers with longitudinal, circumferential, or twisted alignments via the integration of dynamic boronic ester bonds and mechanical force/pressure-induced orientation, all while preserving sufficient periodicity for structural color. Upon inflation, these fibers exhibit diverse motions—expansion, contraction, elongation, twisting—with synchronous color adaptation. Accordingly, we derive a membrane balloon model based on the non-ideal neo-classical LCE energy with suitable CLCE director profiles, successfully capturing key mechanical features including non-monotonicity and sub-criticality. This study provides a paradigm for the development of intelligent shape- and color-changing systems in a bespoke and versatile way.
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Data availability
The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are available on Figshare: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31417376. All data are also available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
Z.Y. acknowledges the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52573036) and the Tsinghua University Dushi Program. F.F. acknowledges the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12472061). J.B. received funding from a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (Grant Nos. MR/S017186/1 and MR/Y033957/1).
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Z.Y. and J.M. conceived the project. J.M. conducted the experiments and wrote the manuscript. J.B. and F.F. conducted theoretical calculations. J.B., F.F., and Z.Y. wrote and revised the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Ma, J., Biggins, J.S., Feng, F. et al. Programmable multimodal actuation in cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer hollow fibers beyond mechanochromism. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71050-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71050-6
