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State of Order of the Crosslinker in Main‐Chain Liquid Crystalline Elastomers
Author(s) -
Zander Frank,
Finkelmann Heino
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.200900659
Subject(s) - mesogen , elastomer , liquid crystal , polymer chemistry , anisotropy , matrix (chemical analysis) , liquid crystalline , dichroism , chain (unit) , order (exchange) , materials science , polymer , side chain , chemistry , polymer science , composite material , optics , physics , optoelectronics , astronomy , finance , economics
Rigid anisotropic crosslinkers have been shown to decrease the nematic order and the transition temperatures of main‐chain liquid crystalline elastomers (MCLCEs). In order to look into this phenomenon, the state of order of an anisotropic crosslinker in an MCLCE was investigated separately from that of the matrix. For this purpose, multifunctional perylene derivatives were synthesized and used as a crosslinker and as a reference mesogen probe. Their states of order were measured by their dichroism, and were compared to that of the MCLCE matrix. A systematically lower degree of order was observed for the crosslinker in comparison to the matrix, both when attached to and dissolved in the network.