Matsuyama A. Volume Phase Transitions of Heliconical Cholesteric Gels under an External Field along the Helix Axis.
Gels 2020;
6:E40. [PMID:
33207705 PMCID:
PMC7709648 DOI:
10.3390/gels6040040]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Revised: 11/06/2020] [Accepted: 11/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We present a mean field theory to describe cholesteric elastomers and gels under an external field, such as an electric or a magnetic field, along the helix axis of a cholesteric phase. We study the deformations and volume phase transitions of cholesteric gels as a function of the external field and temperature. Our theory predicts the phase transitions between isotropic (I), nematic (N), and heliconical cholesteric (ChH) phases and the deformations of the elastomers at these phase transition temperatures. We also find volume phase transitions at the I-ChH and the N-ChH phase transitions.
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