nanoparticle-liquid crystalline elastomer compositesnanoparticle-liquid水晶弹性体复合材料.pdfVIP

Polymers 2012, 4, 316-340; doi:10.3390/polym40 10316 OPEN ACCESS polymers ISSN 2073-4360 /journal/polymers Review Nanoparticle-Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Composites Yan Ji 1,2, Jean E. Marshall 1 and Eugene M. Terentjev 1,* 1 Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK; E-Mails: yj230@cam.ac.uk (Y.J.); jec60@cam.ac.uk (J.E.M.) 2 Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: emt1000@cam.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-1223-337-003; Fax: +44-1223-337-000. Received: 30 November 2011; in revisedform: 10 January 2012 / Accepted: 14 January 2012 / Published: 30 January 2012 Abstract: Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) exhibit a number of remarkable physical effects, including a uniquely high-stroke reversible mechanical actuation triggered by external stimuli. Fundamentally, all such stimuli affect the degree of liquid crystalline order in the polymer chains cross-linked into an elastic network. Heat and the resulting thermal actuation act by promoting entropic disorder, as does the addition of solvents. Photo-isomerization is another mechanism of actuation, reducing the orientational order by diminishing the fraction of active rod-like mesogenic units, mostly studied for azobenzene derivatives incorporated into the LCE composition. Embedding nanoparticles provides a new, promising strategy to add functionality to LCEs and ultimately enhance their