Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.364, 305-312, 2001
Elastic properties of liquid crystal elastomer balloons
We introduce a method to measure elastic properties of smectic, liquid crystalline elastomers. Freely suspended smectic polymer films containing photoreactive groups are inflated to spherical bubbles and crosslinked by UV light irradiation. After crosslinking, the balloon volume is varied and elastic properties of the material are determined from the relation between radius and inner excess pressure. The influence of the network topology on the elastic behaviour is discussed.
Keywords:smectic elastomers;elastic moduli