Dynamic self-stiffening in liquid crystal elastomers

Aditya Agrawal, Alin C. Chipara, Yousif Shamoo, Prabir K. Patra, Brent J. Carey, Pulickel M. Ajayan, Walter G. Chapman and Rafael Verduzco ()
Additional contact information
Aditya Agrawal: Rice University
Alin C. Chipara: Rice University, MS-321, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Yousif Shamoo: Rice University, MS-140, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Prabir K. Patra: University of Bridgeport, 126 Park Avenue, Bridgeport, Connecticut 06604, USA
Brent J. Carey: Rice University, MS-321, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Pulickel M. Ajayan: Rice University, MS-321, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
Walter G. Chapman: Rice University
Rafael Verduzco: Rice University

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Biological tissues have the remarkable ability to remodel and repair in response to disease, injury and mechanical stresses. Synthetic materials lack the complexity of biological tissues, and man-made materials that respond to external stresses through a permanent increase in stiffness are uncommon. Here we report that polydomain nematic liquid crystal elastomers increase in stiffness by up to 90% when subjected to a low-amplitude (5%), repetitive (dynamic) compression. Elastomer stiffening is influenced by liquid crystal content, the presence of a nematic liquid crystal phase and the use of a dynamic as opposed to static deformation. Through rheological and X-ray diffraction measurements, stiffening can be attributed to a mobile nematic director, which rotates in response to dynamic compression. Stiffening under dynamic compression has not been previously observed in liquid crystal elastomers and may be useful for the development of self-healing materials or for the development of biocompatible, adaptive materials for tissue replacement.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2772 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms2772

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2772

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().