1998/11/10 by C. Ortiz, Christine Ortiz, Manfred H. Wagner +6 · 120 citations
Chemistry · Materials Science · #Annealing (glass) #Chemistry #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Crystallography #Deformation (meteorology) #Elastomer #Isotropy #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Microstructure #Optical microscope #Optics #Polarized light microscopy #Polymer Nanocomposites and Properties #Polymer composites and self-healing
paper · doi:10.1021/ma971423x
published in Macromolecules 31(24), 8531-8539 (American Chemical Society)
openalex publication_date 1998/11/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
A main-chain, polydomain, smectic liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) was prepared by reacting the LC epoxy monomer, diglycidyl ether of 4,4‘-dihydroxy-α-methylstilbene, with the aliphatic diacid, sebacic acid. When deformed in uniaxial tension, a “polydomain-to-monodomain” transition took place leading to bulk, macroscopic orientation. With this process was associated a plateau in the nominal stress-versus-strain curve and a dramatic change in optical properties from opaque to translucent. Polarized optical microscopy showed that the transition took place by an elongation of the LC domains and a rotation of the local director orientations along the stress axis. The strain and orientation of the deformed samples were retained upon unloading, even after annealing above T g for extended periods. Upon heating, the oriented LCEs disordered at the same temperature as the undeformed polydomains and “remembered” their original polydomain microstructure and sample dimensions when subsequently cooled from the isotropic state.