Mechanically responsive textiles have transformative potential in many areas from fashion to healthcare. Cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers have strong mechanochromic responses that offer attractive opportunities for such applications. Nonetheless, making liquid crystalline elastomer fibres suitable for textiles is challenging since the Plateau–Rayleigh instability tends to break up precursor solutions into droplets. Here, we report a simple approach that balances the viscoelastic properties of the precursor solution to avoid this outcome and achieve long and mechanically robust cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer filaments. These filaments have fast, progressive and reversible mechanochromic responses, from red to blue (wavelength shift of 155 nm), when stretched up to 200%. Moreover, the fibres can be sewed into garments and withstand repeated stretching and regular machine washing. This approach and resulting fibres may be useful for applications in wearable technology and other areas benefiting from autonomous strain sensing or detection of critically strong deformations.

机械响应纺织品在从时尚到医疗保健的许多领域都具有变革潜力。胆甾型液晶弹性体具有强烈的机械变色响应，为此类应用提供了有吸引力的机会。尽管如此，制造适用于纺织品的液晶弹性体纤维具有挑战性，因为 Plateau-Rayleigh 不稳定性倾向于将前体溶液分解成液滴。在这里，我们报告了一种简单的方法来平衡前体溶液的粘弹性，以避免这种结果，并实现长且机械坚固的胆甾型液晶弹性体细丝。当拉伸至 200% 时，这些细丝具有从红色到蓝色（波长偏移 155 nm）的快速、渐进和可逆的机械变色响应。而且，这种纤维可以缝制成衣服，并能承受反复拉伸和定期机洗。这种方法和由此产生的纤维可用于可穿戴技术和其他受益于自主应变传感或临界强变形检测的领域。