Seohyun Woo (M.S. student, first author) from the Department of Electrical Engineering at POSTECH (advisor: Prof. Suseok Choi) received the Outstanding Paper Award at the International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2025) for the paper titled “Mechanochromic Fibers via Dip-Coating of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Elastomers on Commercial Textile Cores.”

In this research, the team fabricated fibers suitable for smart textile applications using chiral liquid crystal elastomers (CLCEs) that change color in response to mechanical deformation. Conventional extrusion processes typically require high temperature and pressure, and only limited materials can be used as fiber cores, which restricts broader applications.

To overcome these limitations, the researchers adopted a dip-coating method to form a uniform CLCE shell on commercially available polyurethane (PU) textile cores. By controlling the drawing speed during the coating process, the thickness of the coating layer can be precisely tuned, enabling simultaneous control of both optical response and mechanical stiffness.

This approach overcomes the limitations of conventional fabrication methods and opens new possibilities for applications in smart textiles, wearable displays, and optical encryption devices.

This research was supported by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation and by the Stretchable Display Development Program and Stretchable Technology Demonstration Program funded by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT).