Search results for "Liquid Crystal"

Ferroelectric liquid-crystalline elastomers

1994

Oriented liquid-crystalline (LC) elastomers (polar monodomains, concerning the direction of polarisation) have been prepared from polar monodomains of ferroelectric LC-polysiloxanes by a radical photocrosslinking process. Attempts to perform ferroelectric switching lead in these soft elastomers to an elastic stress which prohibits—for low voltages—a complete reorientation of the polar axis (ferroelectric switching). A ferroelectric switching can, however, be observed for high voltages. The loop of hysteresis of this switching is asymmetric concerning the zero point of the driving voltage. Piezoelectric measurements show that these elastomers combine an elastic memory for one polar state wit…

High Optical Quality Films of Liquid Crystalline Cellulose Derivatives in Acrylates

2013

Liquid-Crystalline Elastomer Fibers Prepared in a Microfluidic Device

2014

Semiflexible Polymers in the Bulk and Confined by Planar Walls

2016

Semiflexible polymers in solution under good solvent conditions can undergo an isotropic-nematic transition. This transition is reminiscent of the well-known entropically-driven transition of hard rods described by Onsager’s theory, but the flexibility of the macromolecules causes specific differences in behavior, such as anomalous long wavelength fluctuations in the ordered phase, which can be understood by the concept of the deflection length. A brief review of the recent progress in the understanding of these problems is given, summarizing results obtained by large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory. These results include also the interaction of semiflexib…

Conformational Properties of Semiflexible Chains at Nematic Ordering Transitions in Thin Films: A Monte Carlo Simulation

2014

Athermal solutions of semiflexible macromolecules with excluded volume interactions and with varying concentration (dilute, semidilute, and concentrated solutions) in a film of thickness D between ...

Prediction of long-term service performance of polymeric materials from short-term tests: Creep and prediction of the stress shift factor of a longit…

2001

The material studied is a longitudinal polymer liquid crystal (PLC). The creep behavior of the PLC is examined in the region of nonlinear viscoelasticity. The creep compliance D curves at nine different stress (T levels, from 10 to 50 J.cm3 at a constant temperature are determined and shifted along the log time axis for uRf = 10 J . to produce the D versus t/a, master curve. A fairly general formula for stress shift factor a,, based on free volume vf and the chain relaxation capability (CRC) derived by one of the authors is applied. The formula predicts values that agree with the experimental ones within the limits of the experimental accuracy. Thus, experiments at several stress levels can…

Influence of a Crosslinker Containing an Azo Group on the Actuation Properties of a Photoactuating LCE System

2016

Photoactuating liquid crystalline elastomers (LCE) are promising candidates for an application as artificial muscles in microdevices. In this work, we demonstrate that by optimizing (1) the illumination conditions and (2) the mixture of azo monomer and azo crosslinker, thick films of an all-azo LCE can be prepared, which show a strong length change without bending during photoactuation. This becomes possible by working with white light (about 440 nm), whose absorption is low, leading to a large penetration depth. By adding an azo crosslinker to a previously prepared system, several improvements of the actuation properties—like a stronger photoactuation at lower operational temperatures—coul…

Tetrakis(oxadiazolylphenyl)pyrazines: New St. Andrew's Cross-Shaped Liquid Crystals.

2019

π-Conjugated molecules with the shape of St. Andrew's cross have been synthesized via fourfold Huisgen reaction. Four 2,5-diaryl-1,3,4-oxadiazol arms are attached to a central pyrazine nucleus. These fluorescent stars, when decorated with a rim of eight alkoxy side chains are discotic liquid crystals. Depending on the substitution pattern, the width of the liquid phase varies within a broad range of 25 °C to 250 °C. In their liquid crystalline phase, the molecules assemble in a typical hexagonal columnar supramolecular arrangement.

Structure analysis of side chain liquid crystal polymer films by means of electron microscopy

1987

Abstract Using the combined techniques of electron diffraction, bright and dark field electron microscopy as well as light microscopy, it has been possible to obtain detailed structural information about the arrangement of the smectic layers in a polymethacrylate side chain liquid crystal polymer with a biphenylester as the mesogenic group.

Control of the Properties of Micrometer-Sized Actuators from Liquid Crystalline Elastomers Prepared in a Microfluidic Setup

2010

In this article new results on the preparation of monodisperse particles from a liquid crystalline elastomer in a microfluidic setup are presnted. For this, droplets from a liquid crystalline monomer are prepared in a microfluidic device and polymerized while they are flowing inside a microtube. The parti­cles obtained by this method possess an internal orientation, which gives them actuating properties. When they are heated into the isotropic phase of the liquid crystalline material they show a reversible change in shape whereby they change their length in one direction by almost 100%. It is shown how the variation of experimental parameters during their synthesis impacts the properties of…