TY - JOUR A1 - Melchert, Christian A1 - Behl, Marc A1 - Nöchel, Ulrich A1 - Lendlein, Andreas T1 - Influence of Comesogens on the Thermal and Actuation Properties of 2-tert-Butyl-1,4-bis[4-(4-pentenyloxy)benzoyl]hydroquinone Based Nematic Main-Chain Liquid Crystalline Elastomers JF - Macromolecular materials and engineering N2 - Although the shape-changing capabilities of LCEs hold great potential for applications ranging from micropumps to artificial muscles, customization of the LCE functionality to the applications' requirements is still a challenge. It is studied whether the orientation of NMC-LCPs and NMC-LCEs based on 2-tert-butyl-1,4-bis[4-(4-pentenyloxy)benzoyl]hydroquinone can be enhanced by copolymerization with 2-methyl-1,4-bis[4-(4-pentenyloxy)benzoyl]hydroquinone or 2,6-bis[4-(4-pentenyl-oxy)-benzoyl]anthracene. An increasing content of the comonomers stabilizes the nematic phase, which enables a tailoring of T-NI for the NMC-LCP between 45 and 68 degrees C, while for the NMC-LCE T-NI ranges between 69 and 76 degrees C. In addition, NMC-LCE show an increased actuation performance. KW - elastomers KW - liquid-crystalline polymers KW - polysiloxanes KW - stimuli-sensitive polymers KW - thermal properties Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/mame.201200238 SN - 1438-7492 VL - 297 IS - 12 SP - 1203 EP - 1212 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -