Modeling the polydomain-monodomain transition of liquid crystal elastomers.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Whitmer JK
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4434589 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Modeling the polydomain-monodomain transition of liquid crystal elastomers.
Whitmer Jonathan K JK Roberts Tyler F TF Shekhar Raj R Abbott Nicholas L NL de Pablo Juan J JJ
Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics 20130213 2
We study the mechanism of the polydomain-monodomain transition in liquid crystalline elastomers at the molecular scale. A coarse-grained model is proposed in which mesogens are described as ellipsoidal particles. Molecular dynamics simulations are used to examine the transition from a polydomain state to a monodomain state in the presence of uniaxial strain. Our model demonstrates soft elasticity, similar to that exhibited by side-chain elastomers in the literature. By analyzing the growth dynam ...[more]
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