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Published on: January 19, 2016
Multitemperature Memory Actuation of a Liquid Crystal Polymer Network over a Broad Nematic-Isotropic Phase Transition
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmentally Friendly Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Photovolatic Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The shape change of a polymer actuator based on liquid crystal network (LCN) generally occurs over a relatively sharp LC-isotropic phase transition. Reported herein is the discovery of an unusual phenomenon and the enabled actuation control for LCN. The smectic phase of a LCN with mesogenic moieties on the chain backbone can be suppressed by high elongation of the specimen, which gives rise to a broad nematic-isotropic phase transition. Consequently, the actuation force and related shape of the actuator can be activated to a given degree by easily varying the temperature over a wide range (35 K for LCN prepared with 500% strain) to adjust the proportion of the order-disorder phase transition. This reversible multitemperature memory actuation can translate into many stable and interconvertible shapes with one single LCN actuator.
