We investigate the soft elastic modes of smectic elastomers, that is shape change without energy cost. We use a microscopic model for their nonlinear elasticity, similar to those used for nematic elastomers. We consider two different phases of smectic elastomer; the biaxial smectic A for a simple illustration, and smectic C phases which are of great practical significance. We show that only one...

Medical-grade silicone elastomers were subjected to accelerated aging in saline to verify the hydrolytic stability of the elastomer. Tensile strength, elongation at break, and the elastomer stress measured at 100% or 200% elongation did not change significantly for peroxide-cured sheeting aged in 37 degrees C or 100 degrees C saline for 45 h. Under similar condition, hydrosilylation cured sheet...

Patterning techniques that rely on high-resolution elastomeric elements such as stamps, molds, and conformable photomasks are operationally simple methods for nanofabrication that may find applications in areas such as molecular and organic electronics. The resolution of these "soft" lithographic procedures is often limited by the mechanical properties of the elastomers. We introduce here a che...

When liquid crystal elastomers are prepared without any alignment, disordered polydomain structures emerge as the materials are cooled into the nematic phase. These polydomain structures are often attributed to quenched disorder in the cross-linked polymer network. As an alternative explanation, we develop a theory for the dynamics of the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystal elastomer...

Within the past decade, researchers in the field of tissue engineering have recognized the need for newmaterials with soft and elastic properties. As a result, many groups have focused on the synthesis, characterization, and application of materials with a wide range of biodegradable and elastomeric properties.1 The combination of these polymers with Micro–Electro–Mechanical Systems (MEMS) tech...

We provide a model for the total energy of nematic liquid crystal elastomers whose elastic solid backbones have an average shape of non-uniform prolate spheroids along the director of crosslinked liquid crystalline molecules. This energy is a generalization of the Oseen-Frank free energy for nematic liquid crystals, but incorporates coherently the elastic deformation with changes in the shape a...

Generally, polymers can be classified according to their thermal and mechanical properties into thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers. Thermoplastics are amorphous or semicrystalline polymers that soft or melt during heating and solidify during cooling. The heating/cooling/heating process can be repeated without perceptible changes in thermal and mechanical properties of thermoplastics. The...

Abstract Multilayer dielectric elastomer actuators have a wide range of potential applications, but their development and commercial implementation been hindered by existing manufacturing processes. Existing processes are low‐throughput, limited in area, and/or can only process narrow elastomers. This study presents novel fabrication paradigm that overcomes these challenges: instead sequentiall...