Contraction of side-on nematic liquid crystalline elastomers micropillars: Influence of molecular parameters

ABSTRACT

We investigated the structure-property relationship of nematic liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) actuators obtained from a series of nematic side-on monomers. The liquid crystalline acrylate monomers were designed and synthesized with different tail lengths. Combining a soft lithography technique with photo-polymerization/photo-crosslinking of aligned nematic liquid crystalline monomers and crosslinkers, nematic LCE micropillars were obtained, based on the new monomers. Through microscopic observation, influence of some structural parameters on the thermo-mechanical behavior of the micropillars was investigated. The thermo-mechanical behavior of the LCEs showed a close correlation with to the tail length of the monomer and the spacer length of the crosslinker.

KEYWORDS:

• Actuator
• liquid crystalline elastomer
• molecular parameters
• nematic
• side-on

Acknowledgment

The financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51603029) is gratefully acknowledged.