Search results for "Liquid Crystal"

Mechanical and optical properties of continuously spun fibres of a main-chain smectic A elastomer

2012

Oriented smectic liquid crystal elastomer fibres are prepared with a special wet-spinning technique. The continuous spinning process in principle allows the preparation of fibres with arbitrary length. In comparison to ordinary rubbers, they have unique mechanical properties that qualify them as potential candidates for mechanical actuator applications. We demonstrate that these fibres show a remarkable contraction and extension at the transition from the ordered smectic to the disordered isotropic phase. We characterise their most relevant physical properties, viz. the thermally driven shape changes, stress–strain relations and optical birefringence, by optical and mechanical measurements.

Small-Angle Excess Scattering: Glassy Freezing or Local Orientational Ordering?

1996

We present Monte Carlo simulations of a dense polymer melt which shows glass-transition-like slowing-down upon cooling, as well as a build up of nematic order. At small wave vectors q this model system shows excess scattering similar to that recently reported for light-scattering experiments on some polymeric and molecular glass-forming liquids. For our model system we can provide clear evidence that this excess scattering is due to the onset of short-range nematic order and not directly related to the glass transition.

ChemInform Abstract: Tuning the Defect Configurations in Nematic and Smectic Liquid Crystalline Shells

2013

Thin liquid crystalline shells surrounding and surrounded by aqueous phases can be conveniently produced using a nested capillary microfluidic system, as was first demonstrated by Fernandez-Nieves et al. in 2007. By choosing particular combinations of stabilizers in the internal and external phases, different types of alignment, uniform or hybrid, can be ensured within the shell. Here, we investigate shells in the nematic and smectic phases under varying boundary conditions, focusing in particular on textural transformations during phase transitions, on the interaction between topological defects in the director field and inclusions in the liquid crystal (LC), and on the possibility to relo…

Monte Carlo Study of the Isotropic-Nematic Interface in Suspensions of Spherocylinders

2007

The isotropic to nematic transition in suspensions of anisotropic colloids is studied by means of grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation. From measurements of the grand canonical probability distribution of the particle density, the coexistence densities of the isotropic and the nematic phase are determined, as well as the interfacial tension.

Kernspinlabel-Untersuchungen zur Struktur und Dynamik von flüssigkristallinen Hauptkettenpolymeren

1984

Thermotropic nematic polyesters, specifically deuterated at different positions of the polymer chain, were macroscopically aligned by strong magnetic fields and solid state extrusion. Analysis of the observed 2H NMR spectra was achieved, employing a dynamic NMR model, based on the stochastic Liouville equation. The model considers various double and multiple pulse sequences, recently employed in FT-NMR spectroscopy.

1987

The dielectric relaxation properties of a combined main-chain/side-chain liquid-crystalline polymer were investigated. It was found that the rotation of the side chain about the main chain (δ-process) is not as strongly restricted as in side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers. This is attributed to the facts that the side chain is attached to the flexible spacer within the chain backbone and that the concentration of the side chains is comparatively small. Two low-temperature relaxation processes were observed to occur in the glassy smectic and the crystalline state. They are attributed to intramolecular motions with in the mesogenic groups.

1988

Structure et proprietes thermodynamiques de polyamides rigides portant ces groupes lateraux flexibles

Supramolecular order of stilbenoid dendrons: importance of weak interactions

2006

Stilbenoid dendrons with various donor and acceptor groups on the focal unit were synthesised by a Wittig–Horner reaction, starting from an aldehyde functionalised dendron and various substituted phosphonic acid esters. The target molecules are composed of meta-branched arms, two of them with extended conjugation (distyrylbenzene) and three flexible dodecyloxy chains; the focal group consists of a donor or acceptor substituted styryl unit. The cross-conjugation of the arms prevents the strong electronic influence of substituents on the two extended oligophenylenevinylene chromophores. However, intermolecular interactions mediated by the focal unit allow control of the supramolecular stackin…

ChemInform Abstract: Areno-Condensed Annulenes - Extended Discotic Mesogens.

2010

[n]Annulenes (n ≥12) condensed with 2-4 aromatic ring systems (benzenes, naphthalenes, anthracenes, phenanthrenes, chrysenes, pyrenes) can be prepared by cyclocondensation reactions or ring transformations. Due to the local arene aromaticity, the molecules can be regarded as aromatic islands, which are connected by olefinic bridges. The compounds are non-planar, but the majority of the systems shows a fast inversion of the central macrocyclic ring, so that the molecules appear on average as large planar discs, which consist of extended π systems. The aggregation tendency (π stacking) of the compounds can be strengthened by the attachment of flexible saturated chains on the periphery. The di…

1986

Polyhydrogenomethylsiloxanes ayant la meme paire de groupes lateraux mesogenes mais un bras ecarteur different