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Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (liquid + crystalline_elastomer)
Selected AbstractsA Continuous Flow Synthesis of Micrometer-Sized Actuators from Liquid Crystalline ElastomersADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 47 2009Christian Ohm We demonstrate the use of a microfluidic setup to prepare monodisperse and spherical beads from a liquid crystalline elastomer. These particles show a strong and reversible shape change into a cigar-like conformation during the transition into the isotropic phase. These properies are a result of the monodomainic alignment of the mesogens in the flow field of the microfluidic setup. [source] Phase Biaxility in Smectic-A Side-Chain Liquid Crystalline ElastomersMACROMOLECULAR RAPID COMMUNICATIONS, Issue 8 2009Rebekka Storz Abstract 2H NMR investigations on the biaxial phase behavior of smectic-A liquid crystalline side-chain elastomers are presented. Biaxiality parameters were determined by measuring the quadrupolar splitting of two spin probes, namely benzene-d6 and hexamethylbenzene-d18, at various angles between the principal director and the external magnetic field: while for a uniaxial sample the angular dependence can be described by the second Legendre polynomial, an additional asymmetric term needs to be included to fit the data of the two investigated biaxial systems. Two elastomers synthesized from mesogens that differ in the molecular geometry in order to study the molecular origin of biaxiality were compared. Biaxiality is observed for both elastomers when approaching the glass transition, suggesting that the network dynamics dominate the formation of the biaxial phase. [source] A Continuous Flow Synthesis of Micrometer-Sized Actuators from Liquid Crystalline ElastomersADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 47 2009Christian Ohm We demonstrate the use of a microfluidic setup to prepare monodisperse and spherical beads from a liquid crystalline elastomer. These particles show a strong and reversible shape change into a cigar-like conformation during the transition into the isotropic phase. These properies are a result of the monodomainic alignment of the mesogens in the flow field of the microfluidic setup. [source] Effect of the different rigidity of the chiral crosslinker on phase behaviors of side-chain chiral liquid crystalline elastomersJOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE, Issue 3 2008Bao-Yan Zhang Abstract In the present work, the phase behaviors of two series of side-chain liquid crystalline elastomers (PI and PII series) derived from the same nematic liquid crystalline monomer and the different rigidity of chiral bisolefinic crosslinking units have been compared and studied extensively, and the effect of the different rigidity of crosslinker on the phase behavior of elastomers has been discussed. The chemical structure of the monomers and polymers obtained were confirmed by FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The phase behaviors were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy measurement, thermogravimetric analyses, and X-ray diffraction measurement. The two series of elastomers showed smectic or cholesteric phases. When the amount of different crosslinking units was less than 15 mol %, both of the elastomers displayed elasticity, reversible phase transition with wide mesophase temperature ranges, and high thermal stability. It is shown that the isotropization temperature values of PII series are higher than those of PI series, and the glass transition temperature values of PII series varied smoothly and that of PI series changed smoothly first and then abruptly with increasing the contents of crosslinkers with different rigidity. In addition, PI series showed an interesting change in LC texture near clearing point, but PII series did not. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008 [source] Synthesis and characterization of liquid crystalline elastomers bearing fluorinated mesogenic units and crosslinking mesogensPOLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES, Issue 12 2009Fan-Bao Meng Abstract Several new side-chain liquid crystalline (LC) polysiloxanes and elastomers (IP - VIP) bearing fluorinated mesogenic units and crosslinking mesogens were synthesized by a one-step hydrosilylation reaction with poly(methylhydrogeno)siloxane, a fluorine-containing LC monomer 4,-undec-10-enoyloxy-biphenyl-4-yl 4-fluoro-benzoate and a crosslinking LC monomer 4,-(4-allyloxy-benzoxy)-biphenyl-4-yl 4-allyloxy-benzoate. The chemical structures and LC properties of the monomers and polymers were characterized by use of various experimental techniques such as FTIR, 1H-NMR, EA, TGA, DSC, POM and XRD. The effect of crosslinking mesogens on mesomorphic properties of the fluorinated LC polymers was studied as well. The obtained polymers and elastomers were soluble in many solvents such as toluene, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, and so forth. The temperatures at which 5% weight loss occurred (Td) were greater than 250°C for all the polymers, and the weight of residue near 600°C increased slightly with increase of the crosslinking mesogens in the fluorinated polymer systems. The samples IP, IIP, IIIP and IVP showed both smectic A and nematic phases when they were heated and cooled, but VP and VIP exhibited only a nematic mesophase. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of polymers increased slightly with increase of crosslinking mesogens in the polymer systems, but the mesophase,isotropic phase transition temperature (Ti) and smectic A,nematic mesophase transition temperature (TS-N) decreased slightly. It suggests that the temperature range of the mesophase became narrow with the increase of crosslinking mesogens for all the fluorinated polymers and elastomers. In XRD curves, the intensity of sharp reflections at low angle decreased with increase of crosslinking mesogens in the fluorinated polymers systems, indicating that the smectic order derived from fluorinated mesogenic units should be destroyed by introduction of more crosslinking mesogens. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||