Electroresponsive Stretchable Liquid‐Crystal Device with Deformable Gel Network

Abstract A stretchable, flexible electroresponsive liquid‐crystal (LC) device with extremely simple structure is reported. It exhibits excellent light‐transmission control even during successive 45% stretching, which is due to the combination of a super‐strong LC gel network (5CB/POSS‐G1‐BOC) and transparent conductive electrodes composed of silver nanowires (AgNWs) embedded in polyurethane (PU). The uniaxial tensile deformation mechanism of the gel network is also explained by the uniform distribution of stress acting on the device at the macro level and the evenly distributed fibers obtained from LC gel at the micro level. The fibers can equally dissipate energy through a series of homogeneous complicated changes from long and levorotatory nanofibers to short and rod‐like nanofibers with an increasing stretch ratio from 0% to 900%, which is dubbed the “spiral dissipate energy” model. These results demonstrate the unique stretchable properties of LC gel and LC devices for a wide range of applications, including wearable devices and artificial skins.