Liquid crystal elastomers

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• Jonathan Biggins, TCM Group, Cavendish Laboratory
• Thursday 12 November 2009, 16:00-17:00
• Mott Seminar Room, Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Stephen Walley.

Liquid crystal elastomers are remarkable materials that couple the large strain elasticity of rubber with the mobile orientational order of liquid crystals. This coupling gives rise to a plethora of surprising phenomena including deformation (almost) without elastic cost, actuation in response to heat, light and electric fields, and microstuctral response to imposed deformations. In this seminar I will give an overview of the (surprisingly simple) theory of liquid crystal elastomers then discuss my own work on polydomain nematic elastomers. I will argue polydomains are softer, easier to fabricate and make better actuators than the monodomain elastomers that have dominated the field to date.

This talk is part of the Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Cavendish Laboratory Seminars
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Centre for Health Leadership and Enterprise
• Featured lists
• ME Seminar
• Mott Seminar Room, Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics
• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
• Physics and Chemistry of Solids Group
• School of Physical Sciences
• Thin Film Magnetic Talks

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