Search results for "liquid"

Orientational ordering transitions of semiflexible polymers in thin films: A Monte Carlo simulation

2011

Athermal solutions (from dilute to concentrated) of semiflexible macromolecules confined in a film of thickness D between two hard walls are studied by means of grand-canonical lattice Monte Carlo simulation using the bond fluctuation model. This system exhibits two phase transitions as a function of the thickness of the film and polymer volume fraction. One of them is the bulk isotropic-nematic first-order transition, which ends in a critical point on decreasing the film thickness. The chemical potential at this transition decreases with decreasing film thickness ("capillary nematization"). The other transition is a continuous (or very weakly first-order) transition in the layers adjacent …

Preparation of actuating fibres of oriented main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers by a wetspinning process

2011

We present a versatile method to prepare oriented fibres with a defined thickness from main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers. A microfluidic setup is utilized to inject a solution of a photocrosslinkable smectic A main-chain polymer into a co-flowing stream of silicone oil. Diffusion of the solvent into the oil yields solid polymer filaments that are crosslinked in a continuous way by UV-irradiation. The obtained fibres are highly oriented and show a reversible and significant contraction during the liquid crystal's phase transition.

Self-organization of substituted azacrowns based on their discoid and amphiphilic nature

1989

Abstract Cyclame and hexacyclene derivatives, bearing four and six long-chain substituents respectively, were synthesized. They are discussed as monolayer-forming amphiphiles as well as liquid-crystalline-phase-forming thermotropic mesogens. The compounds investigated form ordered monolayers at the gas/water interface. In the monolayer the hydrophilic cyclic head group lies flat on the water surface, whereas the hydrophobic substituents are oriented perpendicularly with respect to the interface. Most derivatives fitted with aromatic substituents exhibit a solid condensed state exclusively. In contrast with this, solid condensed as well as expanded phases can be found when spreading the alip…

1982

The synthesis and phase behaviour of a series of polymers having liquid crystalline sidechains and a poly(acrylic acid) backbone are described. These polymers show a dependence of the phase transition temperatures on molecular weight. In copolymers of two liquid crystalline acrylic esters, induced smectic phases occur. A comparison of the phase transitions of the different polyacrylates, with those of liquid crystalline polymethacrylates and polysiloxanes, published elsewhere, establishes that the spacer group achieves partial “decoupling” of liquid crystalline and polymer properties.

Differences between smectic homo‐ and co‐polysiloxanes as a consequence of microphase separation

2005

This paper compares smectic phases formed from LC‐homo‐ and LC‐co‐polysiloxanes. In the homopolysiloxane, each repeating unit of the polymer chain is substituted with a mesogen, whereas in the copolysiloxanes mesogenic repeating units are separated by dimethylsiloxane units. Despite a rather similiar phase sequence of the homo‐ and co‐polysiloxanes—higher ordered smectic, smectic C* (SmC*), smectic A (SmA) and isotropic—the nature of their phases differs strongly. For the copolymers the phase transition SmC* to SmA is second order and of the ‘de Vries’ type with a very small thickness change of the smectic layers. Inside the SmA phase, however, the smectic thickness decreases strongly on ap…

Phase behavior and elastic properties of a slightly crosslinked liquid crystalline main-chain polymer

1990

A liquid crystalline main-chain polymer was slightly crosslinked by a reaction withα, ω-difunctionalized oligo-siloxanes. Crosslinking does not disturb the liquid crystalline phases, which are identified by x-ray measurements as smecticB and smecticA phases. Measurements of the elastic properties of the crosslinked sample show rubber-like elasticity, even in the liquid crystalline phases. A difference of 7 K was found between cooling and heating for the smecticA/isotropic transition from DSC and mechanical measurements.

Structure and phase transitions of a liquid crystalline polymer

1981

The structures, textures as well as thermodynamic properties of a side chain polymer exhibiting a liquid crystalline phase in addition to a partially crystalline state and the isotropic fluid state were investigated. Furthermore the kinetics of phase transitions between these states were analyzed. It was found that the properties of this polymer are intermediate between that of low molecular weight liquid crystals and common polymers. In particular it was observed that the relation between the liquid crystalline texture and the structure is different from that of low molecular weight liquid crystals and that the properties of the crystalline and liquid crystalline state depend strongly on t…

1984

Study of the micro-phase separation in LC-polymers with paired mesogens

1990

Differential scanning calorimetry and miscibility investigations were used to study the micro-phase separation of liquid-crystalline dimesogenic side-group polysiloxanes. Diluted co-polysiloxanes exhibit two glass transition temperatures and an unusual miscibility behavior. The observed biphasic character is compared with that of certain amphiphilic systems.

A kinetic study of the formation of smectic phases in novel liquid crystal ionogens

2013

[EN] A multi-rate non-isothermal kinetic analysis of the isotropic-melt to liquid crystalline phase transition of novel liquid crystalline ionogenic copolymers, LCIs, the 10-(4-methoxyazobenzene-4'-oxy)decyl methacrylate]-co-2-(acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid)s, 10-MeOAzB/AMPS, copolymers, has been performed by means of calorimetric experiments. An analytical methodology which includes the study of the phase transition rate parameter, the determination of the activation energies by using Kissinger and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa models, and the study of the phase transition kinetics by the use of the Avrami theory, has been applied. The formation of the mesophases from the isotropic state o…