A Single Director Switching Mode for Monodomain Liquid Crystal Elastomers

We report rotation of a single director in a nematic monodomain, acrylate based side-chain elastomer which was subjected to mechanical fields applied at angles in the range 80° 90° to the director, no, present at the time of network formation. Time and spatially resolving wide angle X-ray scattering, together with polarised light microscopy measurements revealed a pronounced, almost discontinuous switching mode at a critical extension as the strain was applied at angles approaching 90° to no, whereas a more continuous rotation was seen when the strain was applied at more acute angles. This director reorientation was more or less uniform across the complete sample and was accompaniecl by a modest decrease in orientation parameter (P2). At strains sufficient to induce switching there was some continuous distribution of director orientations with fluctuations of +10° although there was no evidence for any localised director inhomogenities such as domain formation. The observed deformation behaviour of these acrylate-based nematic monodomains was in accord with the predictions of a theory developed by Bladon et al., in that the complete set of data could be accounted for through a single parameter describing the chain anisotropy. The experimentally deduced chain anisotropy parameter was in broad agreement with that obtained from small-angle neutron scattering procedures, but was somewhat greater than that obtained by spontaneous shape changes at the nematic-isotropic transition.