To study the effect of the content of the nematic cross-linking units on the mesophase behaviors, the optical and mesomorphic properties of liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs), aseries of LCEs have been synthesized by hydrosilylation reaction with poly(methylhydrogeno)siloxane, a cholesteric liquid crystalline monomer, and a nematic cross-linking agent. The chemical structures and properties of the synthesized LCEs have been investigated by use of various techniques. Homopolymer P0 bearing only cholesteric component displays a smectic A phase, but elastomers P1-P5 containing different content of nematic cross-linking units show a cholesteric mesophase. The reflection wavelengths of theLCEs show a weak temperature dependence at lower temperatures but a strong temperature dependence at higher temperatures. Furthermore, the maximum reflection wavelengths of the LCEs can be stabilized over a wide temperature range when the LCEs are heated, suggesting that the helical structure and pitch of the cholesteric phase can be stabilized with a polymer network. 相似文献
Summary: This paper reports the phase behavior of photochemically crosslinked poly(butyl acrylate) networks in nematic liquid crystal (LC) solvents. The swelling properties are studied as a function of temperature for two low molecular weight nematic LCs, 4‐cyano‐4′‐pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and the eutectic mixture of cyanoparaphenylenes (E7). Chemically crosslinked polymer networks were formed by the UV radiation of initial solutions of the reactive monomer, butyl acrylate, a crosslinker (hexanediol diacrylate), and a photoinitiator. To obtain different network densities, the ratio of butyl acrylate to hexanediol diacrylate was varied prior to polymerization/crosslinking reactions. Immersion in an excess of the LC solvent allowed for the measurement of size increase by polarized optical microscopy in terms of temperature. Length, width, and diagonal ratios were calculated considering swollen to dry network states of the samples. In general, swelling leads to an increase in the network size by increasing the temperature with a significant dependence on the degree of crosslinking. A large shift in the swelling ratio was found in the vicinity of the nematic to isotropic transition temperatures of the LCs.
