Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Identification of nonmonotonic behaviors and stick-slip transition in liquid crystal polymers
Caroline Pujolle-Robic1, Laurence Noirez
1Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (CEA-CNRS), CE Saclay, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France.
Abstract:
The recent identification of shear-induced phases in the isotropic melts of liquid crystal polymers shows that these materials are expected to display original nonlinear behaviors. We have investigated the flow behavior of a nematic sidechain polymer above its isotropic-nematic transition temperature. Nonlinear rheology and birefringence measurements indicate the appearance, above a critical shear rate, of the shear-induced isotropic-nematic phase transition. The rheological behavior of this induced phase is characterized by undamped time-periodic shear stress oscillations. These sustained oscillations are interpreted in terms of a stick-slip mechanism alternating high-friction static state and low-friction kinetic state.
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Fluid Mosaic Model
Classification and Mechanical Properties of Synthetic Polymers
Molecular Weight of Step-Growth Polymers
As the step-growth polymerization involves step-wise condensation of monomers, the molecular weight also builds up eventually. Consequently, high molecular weight polymers are obtained at the late stages of the polymerization, where 99% of monomers have been consumed.
The extent of the...
Types of Fluids
In contrast, non-Newtonian fluids do not follow Newton's law of viscosity, and their...

