Thermo-mechanical and photo-luminescence properties of micro-actuators made of liquid crystal elastomers with cyano-oligo(p-phenylene vinylene) crosslinking bridges

Liquid crystal elastomer micropillars containing β-cyano-OPV crosslinkers contract reversibly at nematic–isotropic (N–I) phase transition and undergo fluorescence intensity change. This luminescent variation is mainly caused by N–I phase change.