Viscoelasticity of the polydomain-monodomain transition in main-chain liquid crystal elastomers

A Azoug, V Vasconcellos, J Dooling, M Saed… - Polymer, 2016 - Elsevier
A Azoug, V Vasconcellos, J Dooling, M Saed, CM Yakacki, TD Nguyen
Polymer, 2016Elsevier
The goal of this study was to explore the rate-dependent behavior of the stretch-induced
polydomain-monodomain (PM) transition of a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). The main-chain
LCE was synthesized and then cross-linked in the nematic polydomain state. The PM
transition caused a soft-elastic behavior, which was measured using uniaxial tensile tests at
multiple strain rates and temperatures. The main finding was that we were able to apply the
temperature-dependent shift factor determined for the small strain behavior and in the …
Abstract
The goal of this study was to explore the rate-dependent behavior of the stretch-induced polydomain-monodomain (PM) transition of a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE). The main-chain LCE was synthesized and then cross-linked in the nematic polydomain state. The PM transition caused a soft-elastic behavior, which was measured using uniaxial tensile tests at multiple strain rates and temperatures. The main finding was that we were able to apply the temperature-dependent shift factor determined for the small strain behavior and in the frequency domain to create master curves for the large-strain response in the strain rate domain. The soft elasticity phenomenon was absent from the stress-strain curve at equilibrium. The results also suggest that the relaxation mechanisms of the network, and not of the mesogen orientation, dominate the rate-dependent behavior. Finally, we observed a relatively slow recovery behavior, suggesting the presence of an additional slow relaxation mechanism.
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