English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are the combinations of liquid crystals (LCs) and elastomers. LCEs correspond to loosely cross-linked LC polymers. A unique feature of LCEs is a strong correlation between macroscopic shape and molecular orientation due to the coupling of liquid crystallinity and rubber elasticity. This feature provides a rich variety of stimulus-response properties, because the elastomers can be deformed by various types of external field that influence the orientational order of LC molecules such as temperature variation, electric and magnetic field, light irradiation. Conversely, the imposed deformation can drive the reorientation of LC molecules along the strain field. Thus LCEs have great potential as the materials of soft actuators and sensors. It has also been reported that a mechanical constraint, for example, the prohibition of the strain in one direction, significantly suppresses the director realignment along the imposed external field. We revealed that almost full rotation of the director in unconstrained nematic gels occurred under sufficiently high electric field, while the degree of director rotation was considerably limited in the geometry where the gel was firmly sandwiched by rigid electrodes. Furthermore, the constrained geometry significantly increases the threshold field strength for the onset of the director rotation. A simulation and experimental studies showed several characteristic configurations of director could appear in such constrained geometries depending on the nematicity and film thickness. Verduzco et al. demonstrated that a periodic modulation of the director appeared in the soft nematic gels confined in the cells when subjected to cooling. This buckling instability is a kind of low-energy deformation that occurs when the deformations of polymer networks are coupled to the director alignment. For a cholesteric elastomer, the location of the selective reflection band, which corresponds to the pitch of helical configuration, shifted to longer wavelengths upon heating as a result of a decrease in order of underlying nematic layer, but it showed no shift in the constrained geometry where the thermally induced film-thickening is prohibited. Thus LCEs placed in mechanically constrained geometries exhibit various types of director configuration when subjected to external fields, and this phenomenon provides an interesting issue in the physics of liquid crystals and polymers. However, the experimental characterization Effects of Mechanical Constraint on Director Configuration of Monodomain Nematic Elastomers under Temperature Variation