Characterization of the soft behavior of nematic elastomers over a range of temperature and strain rates

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed experimental characterization of nematic elastomers' thermo-mechanical behavior across various temperatures and strain rates, supporting the development of advanced soft material applications.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental setup and dataset, and validates a recent model of nematic elastomers' soft behavior.

Findings

Nematic elastomers exhibit significant softening with temperature increase.

Strain rate influences the elastic response of nematic elastomers.

Experimental data aligns well with the proposed theoretical model.

Abstract

Nematic elastomers are a particular class of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) that exhibit both liquid-crystalline order and rubber (entropic) elasticity. This combination makes them stimuli-responsive soft materials with a number of unusual thermo-mechanical properties. They have been proposed for various applications, including soft robotics, enhanced adhesion, and impact resistance. This paper presents a new experimental setup and a comprehensive dataset characterizing the soft behavior of nematic elastomers over a range of temperatures and strain rates. We also fit the results to a recently developed model of nematic elastomers.