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Updated: May 13, 2026

Preparation of Monodomain Liquid Crystal Elastomers and Liquid Crystal Elastomer Nanocomposites
Published on: February 6, 2016
Modeling the polydomain-monodomain transition of liquid crystal elastomers
Jonathan K Whitmer1, Tyler F Roberts, Raj Shekhar
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1691, USA.
Abstract:
We study the mechanism of the polydomain-monodomain transition in liquid crystalline elastomers at the molecular scale. A coarse-grained model is proposed in which mesogens are described as ellipsoidal particles. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to examine the transition from a polydomain state to a monodomain state in the presence of uniaxial strain. Our model demonstrates soft elasticity, similar to that exhibited by side-chain elastomers in the literature. By analyzing the growth dynamics of nematic domains during uniaxial extension, we provide direct evidence that at a molecular level the polydomain-monodomain transition proceeds through cluster rotation and domain growth.
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