Immiscible polymer blend electrorheological fluids: Composition dependence

✍ Scribed by Hiroshi Orihara; Tomohiko Kawasaki; Masao Doi; Akio Inoue

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1021 KB
• Volume: 86
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/app.11316

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We investigated the composition dependence of the electrorheological properties of immiscible polymer blends which consist of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) and polydimethylsiloxane (DMS). We used two different kinds of LCPs, designated as A and B polymers. We observed that for a fixed ratio of an LCP and DMS (LCP:DMS = 2:1) the electrorheological properties change from type I to type II as the fraction of the A polymer is reduced. Microscopic observations indicate that the change in the electrorheological properties is associated with the structural change; in type I, LCP droplets are dispersed in DMS, while in type II, DMS droplets are dispersed and, furthermore, that the structural change is associated with the miscibility between DMS and the LCPs; the A polymer is partially miscible with DMS, while the B polymer is hardly miscible with DMS. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 3673–3680, 2002