Dynamic Theory of Polydomain Liquid Crystal Elastomers

When liquid crystal elastomers are prepared without any alignment, disordered polydomain structures emerge as the materials are cooled into the nematic phase. These polydomain structures are often attributed to quenched disorder in the cross-linked polymer network. As an alternative explanation, we...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2015-10, Vol.115 (18), p.187801-187801, Article 187801
Main Authors: Duzgun, Ayhan, Selinger, Jonathan V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Disorders
Dynamics
Elastomers
Liquid crystals
Mathematical analysis
Networks
Phase separation
Quenching (cooling)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:When liquid crystal elastomers are prepared without any alignment, disordered polydomain structures emerge as the materials are cooled into the nematic phase. These polydomain structures are often attributed to quenched disorder in the cross-linked polymer network. As an alternative explanation, we develop a theory for the dynamics of the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystal elastomers, and show that the dynamics can induce a polydomain structure with a characteristic length scale, through a mechanism analogous to the Cahn-Hilliard equation for phase separation.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.115.187801