High‐Speed and Scalable Wet Spinning of Graphene/Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Composite Filaments

Abstract

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are promising candidates for the development of soft, environmentally‐responsive actuators and have recently been explored for application in smart textiles and soft robotics. To realize the potential of LCEs within these systems, the fast, scalable, and continuous production of LCE filaments at controlled diameters is critical. Here, a wet‐spinning method is presented for the scalable manufacturing of graphene/LCE composite filaments. Through a double diffusion mechanism, the graphene/LCE precursors rapidly crosslink into tangible filaments without the use of UV light, instead taking advantage of solvent exchange and high catalyst influx. The continuous production of polydomain graphene/LCE filaments can achieve speeds up to 4500 m h−1. Through π−π interactions between graphene and the LCE matrix, the composite graphene/LCE filaments across a broad range of diameters (137 to 1128 µm) can be obtained with high integrity, achieving actuation stresses and strains up to 3.66 MPa and 44%, respectively, in 3 s. The filaments are showcased as artificial muscles, where both thin and thick filament sizes are of interest. The presented scalable wet‐spinning method will open new opportunities to design smart textiles and soft robotics from fibers of controlled sizes.