Liquid crystalline cellulosic elastomers: free standing anisotropic films under stretching

The structure and local ordering of 1,6-hexamethylenediisocyanate-(acetoxypropy1) cellulose (HDI-APC) liquid crystalline elastomer thin films are investigated by using X-ray diffraction and scattering techniques. Optical microscopy and mechanical essays are performed to complement the investigation. The study is performed in films subjected or not to an uniaxial stress. Our results indicate that the film is constituted by a bundle of helicoidal fiber-like structure, where the cellobiose block spins around the axis of the fiber, like a string-structure in a smectic-like packing, with the pitch defined by a smectic-like layer. The fibers are in average perpendicular to the smectic-like planes. Without the stretch, these bundles are warped, only with a residual orientation along the casting direction. The stretch orients the bundles along it, increasing the smectic-like and the nematic-like ordering of the fibers. Under stress, the network of molecules which connects the cellobiose blocs and forms the cellulosic matrix tends to organize their links in a hexagonal-like structure with lattice parameter commensurate to the smectic-like structure.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)

Instituto Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia de Fluidos Complexos (INCT-FCx)

Instituto Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia de Fluidos Complexos (INCT-FCx)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPq)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation[PTDC/CTM/099595/2008]

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia de Portugal (FCT)