Heterogeneous Structure in Elastomers and Polymer Nanotechnology :

Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers

The need for mechanical manipulation during the curing of conventional liquid crystal elastomers diminishes their applicability in the field of shape-programmable soft materials and future applications in additive manufacturing. Here we report on polymer-dispersed liquid crystal elastomers, novel composite materials that eliminate this difficulty. Their thermal shape memory anisotropy is imprin...

Nanotechnology and Polymer Solar Cells

In response to environmental concerns there is a drive towards developing renewable, and cleaner, energy technologies. Solar cells, which harvest energy directly from sunlight, may satisfy future energy requirements, but photovoltaic devices are currently too expensive to compete with existing fossil fuel based technologies. Polymer solar cells, on the other hand, are cheaper to produce than co...

Multiscale instabilities in soft heterogeneous dielectric elastomers.

The development of instabilities in soft heterogeneous dielectric elastomers is investigated. Motivated by experiments and possible applications, we use in our analysis the physically relevant referential electric field instead of electric displacement. In terms of this variable, a closed form solution is derived for the class of layered neo-Hookean dielectrics. A criterion for the onset of ele...

Electroactive Thermoplastic Dielectric Elastomers as a New Generation Polymer Actuators

Specific interactions, structure and properties in segmented polyurethane elastomers

Two sets of segmented polyurethane (PU) elastomers were prepared from 4,4!-methylenebis(phenyl isocyanate) (MDI), 1,4-butanediol (BD) and a polyester or a polyether polyol, respectively. The molecular mass of both polyols was 1000 g/mol. The stoichiometric ratio of isocyanate and hydroxyl groups was 1 and the polyol/total diol ratio changed from 0 to 1 in 0.1 steps. One step bulk polymerization...