0000000000248293
AUTHOR
R. Köhler
Structure and elastic properties of smectic liquid crystalline elastomer films
Mechanical measurements, x-ray investigations, and optical microscopy are employed to characterize the interplay of chemical composition, network topology, and elastic response of smectic liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) in various mesophases. Macroscopically ordered elastomer films of submicrometer thicknesses were prepared by cross linking freely suspended smectic polymer films. The cross-linked material preserves the mesomorphism and phase transitions of the precursor polymer. The elastic response of the smectic LCE is entropic, and the corresponding elastic moduli are of the order of MPa. In the tilted ferroelectric smectic-C* phase, the network structure plays an important role. Du…
Free-standing smectic LC elastomer films
ABSTRACTWe probe the mesophase transitions and layer structures in thin ordered smectic liquid crystalline elastomer films by means of x-ray diffraction and optical microscopy. Oriented elastomer films of submicrometer thickness are produced by crosslinking freely suspended smectic polymer films. After crosslinking, the mesomorphism is similar to that of the precursor polymer. Smectic layers align parallel to the film plane. The layer spacing increases with temperature in the SmC* phase while it decays above the SmC*-SmA transition.
Study of smectic elastomer films under uniaxial stress
We study the mechanical properties of free-standing films of smectic liquid crystalline elastomers. Macroscopically ordered elastomer films of submicrometer thickness are prepared from freely suspended smectic A polymer films by photo crosslinking. The deformation characteristics depend criticically on the sample composition, in particular on the density of mesogenic side chains at the siloxane backbone. In materials where the siloxane backbone is only partially substituted (dilute systems), a uniaxial stretching of the films in the layer plane is accompanied by a shrinkage of the smectic layers. This layer shrinkage is to only a minor extent achieved by the induction of a molecular tilt. W…