Synopses & Reviews
Liquid crystals are fluids with directionality defined. Polymers are long molecules with a shape that can be changed. As a network, polymers form rubber-a soft solid that is locally liquid-like and capable of huge extension. Liquid crystal elastomers area combination of all these curious aspects, but with additional, revolutionary new phenomena-for example, spontaneous shape changes of several hundred percent induced by temperature change, with equally large opto-mechanical responses, shape change without energy cost (Soft elasticity), color change with strain, lasing and photonics, sensitivity to molecular handedness and soft solid ferroelectricity. This book is a primer for liquid crystals, polymers, rubber and elasticity. It then describes the theory and experiment of these remarkable materials for the first time as a monograph. Worked examples are solved so that the reader can become proficient in the field himself. The book is directed at physicists, chemists, material scientists, engineers and applied mathematicians at the graduate level and beyond.
About the Author
Mark Warner is a professor at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and has been awarded various prizes: IoP Maxwell Medal (1989), IoP Award for Public Awareness of Science (1999) and A.von Humboldt Prize (2000). Eugene Terentjev is a Reader in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Table of Contents
1. A bird's eye view of liquid crystal elastomers
2. Liquid crystals
3. Polymers, elastomers and rubber elasticity
4. Classical elasticity
5. Nematic elastomers
6. Nematic rubber elasticity
7. Soft elasticity
8. Distortions of nematic elastomers
9. Cholesteric elastomers
10. Continuum theory of nematic elastomers
11. Dynamics of liquid crystal elastomers
12. Smectic elastomers
A. Nematic order in elastomers under strain
B. Biaxial soft elasticity
C. Stripe microstructure
D. Couple-stress and Cosserat elasticity
E. Expansion at small deformations and rotations