Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) are soft materials which disorder upon heating through the isotropic transition temperature. The order-disorder phase transition of LCEs results in a contraction of up to ∼50% along the aligned axis. Motivated by this distinctive stimuli-response, LCEs are increasingly considered as low-density actuators. Generally, LCEs are composed entirely of covalent bonds. Recently, we have prepared LCEs with intramesogenic supramolecular bonds from dimerized oxybenzoic acid derivatives and documented distinctive thermomechanical response in these supramolecular LCEs. Here, we report a detailed investigation of phase transitions in supramolecular LCEs by systematically varying the composition to affect the strength of the intermolecular interactions in the polymer network. The order-disorder phase transition is shown to be influenced by the conformation and dissociation of supramolecular dimers. Distinctly, this report isolates and details an LCE composition which undergoes an intermediate transition to an incommensurate phase at lower temperatures than the order-disorder transition.

中文翻译：

---

超分子液晶弹性体的有序-无序转变


液晶弹性体 （LCE） 是软材料，在加热通过各向同性转变温度时会无序。LCE 的有序无序相变导致沿对齐轴收缩高达 ∼50%。在这种独特的刺激反应的激励下，LCE 越来越多地被认为是低密度致动器。通常，LCE 完全由共价键组成。最近，我们从二聚化氧苯甲酸衍生物制备了具有介体内超分子键的 LCE，并记录了这些超分子 LCE 中独特的热机械反应。在这里，我们通过系统地改变组成来影响聚合物网络中分子间相互作用的强度，详细研究了超分子 LCE 中的相变。有序无序相变显示受超分子二聚体构象和解离的影响。显然，本报告分离并详细介绍了一种 LCE 组成，该组成在低于有序无序转变的温度下经历中间转变为不相称的阶段。