Electricity trigger chameleon core-shell fiber via liquid metal drive thermochromic polyacrylonitrile

Abstract

The discovery of color-controlled fiber holds profound importance for the development of flexible wearable devices and soft display equipment. In this study, a kind of electrically triggered chameleon fiber (ETF) was fabricated. Liquid metal was used as the conductive core structure, and red, blue and yellow thermochromic pigments were mixed into a polyacrylonitrile solution with dimethyl sulfoxide as solvent to form the thermochromic matrix shell structure. By coaxial wet spinning, reversible, ETF with a core-shell structure was prepared. We utilized joule heating to drive the thermochromic pigments change the conjugate plating by adjusting the color. ETF has therefore ideal electrochromism properties. This smart fiber appearing as a dark purple fiber at room temperature and can change color when the current is adjusted. The color expressive of ETFs changed from dark purple (0.2 A) to green (0.6 A), then to yellow (1 A), and finally to white (1.2 A). When the current was turned off, the fibers were able to return to their original color due to the conjugated structure transformation of the three thermochromic pigments. Moreover, ETFs demonstrated good thermal stability, tolerating temperatures of up to 200 ℃. This work offers a simple and cost-effective method for developing soft display equipment.