Determination of the Elasticity Coefficients for Nematic Liquid Crystal Elastomers

Liquid crystal elastomers are attractive materials featuring promising applications in emerging technologies, but their structure–property relationship has yet to be thoroughly explored. Some mechanical properties of these the focus this article. Three tensile experiments monodomain nematic liquid have been theoretically analyzed using a free energy density expression describing and orientational deformations interaction. As result, theoretical relation is obtained that relates quantities measured with elasticity coefficients entering density. Five were estimated for different compositions available experimental data from literature.