Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are increasingly considered as advanced materials that prospectively may enable distinctive functional utility in medical devices, consumer goods, and aerospace. This report details the contribution of the polymerization conditions within the thermotropic phase behavior of material compositions and systematically illustrates the substantive contributions of nematic genesis to the resulting thermomechanical response. Compositionally identical LCEs were polymerized in the monodomain orientation over a range of temperatures in the nematic phase of the formulations. Upon polymerization, the thermomechanical response of the compositionally identical LCEs prepared over a range of temperatures had a 15% increase in the nematic to isotropic transition temperature (T_NI), 50% decrease in the magnitude of the thermomechanical response, and 25% decrease in total actuation stroke. X-ray scattering was utilized to elucidate the correlation of polymerization temperature (e.g., nematic genesis) to the orientational order of LCEs. These measurements show, in addition to differences in mechanical properties between the LCEs, the nematic genesis of the polymerization reaction affects the overall degree of liquid crystallinity, the coherence length of the cybotactic nematic domains, and the orientation parameter of the LCE.

中文翻译：

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去卷积聚合温度对液晶弹性体驱动的影响


液晶弹性体 （LCE） 越来越多地被认为是先进材料，有望在医疗器械、消费品和航空航天中实现独特的功能用途。本报告详细介绍了聚合条件对材料成分的热致相行为的贡献，并系统地说明了向列成因对产生的热机械响应的实质性贡献。成分相同的 LCE 在制剂的向列相中，在一定温度范围内以单域方向聚合。聚合后，在一定温度范围内制备的成分相同的 LCE 的热机械响应向列向各向同性转变温度 （T_NI） 增加了 15%，热机械响应的大小降低了 50%，总驱动行程减少了 25%。利用 X 射线散射来阐明聚合温度 （例如，向列发生） 与 LCE 取向顺序的相关性。这些测量表明，除了 LCE 之间机械性能的差异外，聚合反应的向列发生也会影响液晶的整体程度、圆规向列结构域的相干长度和 LCE 的取向参数。