Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Synthesis of Programmable Main-chain Liquid-crystalline Elastomers Using a Two-stage Thiol-acrylate Reaction
Published on: January 19, 2016
Slow dynamics of shape recovery of disordered nematic elastomers
Kenji Urayama1, Seiji Honda, Toshikazu Takigawa
1Department of Materials Chemistry, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan. urayama@rheogate.polym.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
A loosely cross-linked liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) having a disordered director alignment (polydomain texture) slowly recovers to their original shape from the deformed state in the order of 10(3) s after the imposed field is removed. The mesogen alignment at the cross-linking stage greatly affects the shape recovery dynamics of polydomain LCEs, whereas it has no appreciable influence on the equilibrium characteristics such as the nematic-isotropic transition temperature, degree of swelling, and field-induced strain. The shape recovery of a LCE formed in the polydomain nematic state is considerably faster than that originally prepared in the isotropic state because of the memory effect of the initial director distribution at the cross-linking stage. The relaxation time rapidly increases as the temperature approaches the transition temperatures; this is independent of the initial mesogen alignment during cross linking.
Related Concept Videos
Members Made of Elastoplastic Material
As the bending moment...
Residual Stresses in Bending
Plastic Behavior
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution

