Structure and stress relaxation of smectic liquid crystal elastomers

Polydomain SmC main chain liquid crystal elastomers were investigated using synchrotron x ray diffraction to determine how microscopic structure relates to the macroscopic changes in their physical properties and elastic behavior at room temperature and to understand their shape recovery Experiments measured the changes in their molecular organization at different stages of elastic deformation caused by uniaxial strain the strain retention under zero external stress and the thermal shape recovery process At