A study on interfacial tension between flexible polymer and liquid crystal.
The interfacial property in polymer-liquid crystal systems is quite different from flexible polymer-polymer mixtures due to the anisotropic properties of liquid crystals. The apparent interfacial tension between a liquid crystal and a flexible polymer was measured by deformed droplet retraction method. The deformation and recovery of a single liquid crystal droplet dispersed in a poly(dimethylsiloxane) matrix were realized by a transient shear flow and observed by polarized optical microscope. The apparent interfacial tension of polymer-liquid crystal system was found to be greatly dependent on the temperature, initial droplet deformation and liquid crystal droplet size.
Wu
Youjun
Y
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.
Yu
Wei
W
Zhou
Chixing
C