Search results for "soft"
showing 10 items of 9809 documents
Synthesis, structure and properties of liquid crystalline polymers
1981
The following is an extended abstract of a paper presented at the conference on Liquid Crystalline Polymers in Leeds, 1980, summarising the principles of the synthesis of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers, their structure dependant phase behaviour and their orientation in electric and magnetic fields.
Combined main chain/side chain polymers. A new class of liquid crystalline polymers with unusual structural, thermodynamic and dynamic properties
1990
Abstract Combined main chain/side chain polymers carry rigid rod-like mesogenic units both in the side chain and along the chain backbone. The properties of such combined systems are expected to be controlled by the competition of the interactions between the mesogenic units in the side and main chains as well as the tendency of the chain backbones to maximize their entropy. The thermodynamic, structural and dynamic properties of such combined main chain/side chain liquid-crystalline polymers were investigated for various chain architectures. The combined systems were found to display properties corresponding in many cases to a favourable superposition of properties characteristic of both m…
Elastic Properties of Liquid Crystal Elastomer Balloons
2001
We introduce a method to measure elastic properties of smectic liquid crystalline elastomers. Freely suspended smectic polymer films containing photoreactive groups are inflated to spherical bubbles and crosslinked by UV light irradiation. After crosslinking, the balloon volume is varied and elastic properties of the material are determined from the relation between radius and inner excess pressure. The influence of the network topology on the elastic behaviour is discussed.
X-ray investigation of combined main-chain/side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers
1990
Abstract Structural investigations on six combined liquid-crystalline polymers using the X-ray technique are described. The measurements have allowed a characterization of the liquid-crystalline phases and have led to our first ideas about the phase structures. All mesogenic groups are arranged parallel to each other, the shortest segment in the main-chain or in the side-chain determines the smectic layer spacing. A modified designation for liquid-crystalline phases of high polymers is proposed.
Infrared spectroscopic study of a phenyl benzoate side group—methacrylate main chain polymeric liquid crystal
1994
Abstract The temperature dependence of the infrared dichroism of a side chain polymeric liquid crystal was investigated for two homogeneously oriented samples, one aligned with a PVA coating and the other aligned by a magnetic field. From the apparent order parameters, it was found that the rotation of the mesogenic side group was restricted. Not only the rigid part of the side group, but also the alkyl chains were found to be partly ordered. Realignment of the side groups was observed in the case of the magnetically aligned sample at the smectic-nematic transition temperature. Unlike the other absorption bands, the C˭O bond vibration band shifted to higher wavenumbers with increasing tempe…
Modelling Monomer/Disc Composites Phase Behaviour
2012
Summary: A model developed by Balazs' group to explain the phase behaviour of polymer/clay composites is extended to obtain an expression for the free energy of polymer/thin disc mixtures. Phase diagrams for monomer/disc mixtures are built by minimizing the free energy and calculating the chemical potentials of the three system components. Via the comparison of the diagrams, it is studied the effects of nanodisc size and interaction parameters on mixture stability and attained morphology. The performed predictions between monomers and discs give criteria that advance the properties of the mixture. Changes in monomer concentration and interaction parameters provide a means to prevent van der…
Suivi par diffraction de rayons X “in situ” de l'évolution du paramètre de maille du ferrite nanométrique γ-Fe2O3lors de l'isotherme d'adsorption d'e…
2002
La methode de synthese par chimie douce a ete utilisee pour synthetiser des nanoparticules de maghemite γ-Fe 2 O 3 dans une gamme de taille allant de 9 a 14 nm. Ces poudres, parfaitement cristallisees en phase spinelle, exemptes d'impuretes, avec une stoechiometrie en oxygene parfaitement controlee, ont servi de materiaux modeles pour cette etude. Le parametre de maille de ce materiau (0,8346 nm) s'avere etre non dependant de la taille. Cependant, le suivi en Diffraction de Rayons X in-situ revele des variations de ce parametre avec la modification de la surface en presence de vapeur d'eau. Les phenomenes de chimisorption et de physisorption jouent un role preponderant dans les evolutions o…
Defects and defect engineering in Soft Matter.
2020
Soft matter covers a wide range of materials based on linear or branched polymers, gels and rubbers, amphiphilic (macro)molecules, colloids, and self-assembled structures. These materials have applications in various industries, all highly important for our daily life, and they control all biological functions; therefore, controlling and tailoring their properties is crucial. One way to approach this target is defect engineering, which aims to control defects in the material's structure, and/or to purposely add defects into it to trigger specific functions. While this approach has been a striking success story in crystalline inorganic hard matter, both for mechanical and electronic properti…
How ill-defined constituents produce well-defined nanoparticles: effect of polymer dispersity on the uniformity of copolymeric micelles
2019
We investigate the effect of polymer length dispersity on the properties of self-assembled micelles in solution by self-consistent field calculations. Polydispersity stabilizes micelles by raising the free energy barriers of micelle formation and dissolution. Most importantly, it significantly reduces the size fluctuations of micelles: Block copolymers of moderate polydispersity form more uniform particles than their monodisperse counterparts. We attribute this to the fact that the packing of the solvophobic monomers in the core can be optimized if the constituent polymers have different length.
Effects of inhomogeneities of cross-links on a microphase separation of polymer mixtures
1994
We generalize de Gennes' theory of the microphase separation of cross-linked polymer mixtures to take into account the spatial fluctuations of the elasticity constant c, preventing the mixture from complete segregation. Within a mean-field analysis we found that the spatial fluctuations of c(r), which are assumed to obey the Poisson distribution, enlarge the size of the domains. The latter is obtained to be temperature dependent.