Contraction of side-on nematic liquid crystalline elastomers micropillars: Influence of molecular parameters |
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| Authors: | Renbo Wei Xiufu Hua |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Research Branch of Advanced Functional Materials, School of Microelectronics and Solid-State Electronics, High Temperature Resistant Polymer and Composites Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China;2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;4. Department of Scientific Research and Development, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | We investigated the structure-property relationship of nematic liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) actuators obtained from a series of nematic side-on monomers. The liquid crystalline acrylate monomers were designed and synthesized with different tail lengths. Combining a soft lithography technique with photo-polymerization/photo-crosslinking of aligned nematic liquid crystalline monomers and crosslinkers, nematic LCE micropillars were obtained, based on the new monomers. Through microscopic observation, influence of some structural parameters on the thermo-mechanical behavior of the micropillars was investigated. The thermo-mechanical behavior of the LCEs showed a close correlation with to the tail length of the monomer and the spacer length of the crosslinker. |
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| Keywords: | Actuator liquid crystalline elastomer molecular parameters nematic side-on |
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