Figure 1. Drawn fibres and coiled actuators fabricated from crystalline polymers.
(a) Ideal structural model of repeating units of oriented tie-molecules and crystalline lamellas along the drawn direction. (b) (left) Schematic of a twisted coil; (right) optical microscope images of coiled fibres. (c) Thermal expansion coefficient of drawn fibres along the polar direction (α⊥) and along the fibre axis (α//), as measured by TMA. d) TMA results for coiled fibres.