title: A study on interfacial tension between flexible polymer and liquid crystal.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Youjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Chixing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou