title: Volume phase transitions of biaxial nematic elastomers.
abstract: We present a mean-field theory to describe biaxial nematic phases of side-chain liquid crystalline elastomers. Novel biaxial nematic phases are theoretically predicted in a side-chain liquid crystalline polymer and gel, where side chains (mesogens) and rigid-backbone chains favor mutually perpendicular orientations. We calculate uniaxial and biaxial orientational order parameters and examine deformations of the gel and stable biaxial nematic phases of the liquid crystalline gel dissolved in isotropic solvents. We predict first-order uniaxial-biaxial nematic phase transitions of the gel and the volume of the gel is discontinuously changed at the phase transition temperature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience and Bioinformatics, Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kawazu 680-4, Iizuka, Fukuoka 820-8502, Japan. matuyama@bio.kyutech.ac.jp
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Matsuyama
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization; D020724:Elastomers / Q000737:chemistry*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D044367:Phase Transition
chemical_list: D020724:Elastomers