Premium
Photocrosslinkable Liquid Crystal Main‐Chain Polymers: Thin Films and Electrospinning
Author(s) -
Krause Simon,
Dersch Roland,
Wendorff Joachim H.,
Finkelmann Heino
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200700460
Subject(s) - materials science , electrospinning , elastomer , liquid crystal , polymer , composite material , thin film , moiety , phase transition , curing (chemistry) , side chain , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
For mechanical actuators, a response to external stimuli is required. Main‐chain liquid crystal elastomers (MCLCEs) show high response to changes in temperature especially in the vicinity of a phase transition. Most of these crosslinked materials were synthesized in a one‐step reaction which leads to a macroscopically aligned elastomer. Up to now only macroscopic samples have been prepared. We are presenting a new approach which allows us to prepare thin films as well as aligned fibers. First a liquid crystalline main‐chain polymer with a photoactive moiety was synthesized, which was oriented by a mechanical field and photocrosslinked. The thin films show exceptional mechanical properties such as large temperature‐dependent changes in length and a nonlinear stress–strain relation. To obtain fibers, we used the electrospinning process from solution with in situ UV curing. We obtained crosslinked fibers with a uniform alignment of the nematic director.