Director Orientation in Deformed Liquid Crystal Elastomer Microparticles

Abstract

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) combine the elastic properties of rubber and the anisotropy of liquid crystals. LCE microparticles have application as micro-actuators micro-robots, micro-pumps, and sensors. In this paper, we describe the production of uniform spherical LCE microparticles smaller than 100 μm, using a microfluidic technique followed by photo-cross-linking. Uniaxial compression of the LCE microspheres gives rise to a unique tangential director configuration. Using finite element analysis to determine the strain, we find that the tangential director configuration follows the 1^st principal strain field induced by the uniaxial compressive stress.

Keywords:

• Colloid
• Finite Element Analysis
• Liquid Crystal Elastomers
• Microfluidics
• Microparticles

Acknowledgment

We thank NSF for the materials provided by the New Liquid Crystal Materials Facility (DMR-0606357) and the Kent State University start-up fund for financial support.

Notes

Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lsfm.