Mistry, D orcid.org/0000-0003-0012-6781, Nikkhou, M orcid.org/0000-0003-4475-3154, Raistrick, T orcid.org/0000-0002-6227-6550 et al. (4 more authors) (2020) Isotropic Liquid Crystal Elastomers as Exceptional Photoelastic Strain Sensors. Macromolecules, 53 (10). pp. 3709-3718. ISSN 0024-9297
Abstract
A family of acrylate-based isotropic Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) exhibit stress- and strain-optic coefficients orders of magnitude greater than conventional polymeric and photoelastic materials. The three materials, composed of liquid crystalline and nonliquid crystalline monomers, show no nematic phase at any temperature. One of the materials has previously been synthesized with nematic symmetry, but here is instead templated with isotropic symmetry, demonstrating a previously unrealized idea proposed by de Gennes in 1969. Uniaxial strains applied to each material induce nematic ordering which we quantify using dye-absorption spectra and polarized Raman Spectroscopy. We deduce the coupling constants between the nematic liquid crystal order parameter and applied strain varies between 0.37 ± 0.02 and 0.66 ± 0.02—values large compared to other LCE systems. The combination of high strain-optic coefficients (0.048 ± 0.003 to 0.11 ± 0.01) and high compliances (245 ± 18 to 1900 ± 100 GPa–1) demonstrates that isotropic LCEs are exciting candidates for photoelastic coatings for assessing deformations across soft devices and biomaterials.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Soft Matter Physics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Royal Commission For Exhibition of 1851 Devesh Mistry |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 May 2020 08:49 |
Last Modified: | 19 Dec 2024 16:06 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Chemical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1021/acs.macromol.9b02456 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:159978 |