Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 49: Elastomers and Gels
CPP 49.3: Talk
Friday, March 26, 2010, 10:45–11:00, H48
Theory of light-induced deformation of azobenzene elastomers — •Vladimir Toshchevikov1,2, Marina Saphiannikova1, and Gert Heinrich1 — 1Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Hohe Str. 6, 01069 Dresden, Germany — 2Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, Bolshoi pr. 31, 199004 Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Photosensitive elastomers bearing azobenzene moieties in their strands are able to change the shape under light irradiation. These polymers have a fascinating potential for technical applications as smart materials (microrobots, micropumps, artificial muscles). Recently, we have proposed a microscopic theory [1] of light-induced deformations in amorphous azobenzene polymers consisting of short oligomers which bear azobenzene moieties in their side chains. In the present work we extend the theory [1] to azobenzene elastomers taking the chain structure of network strands explicitly into account. We show that similar to the amorphous azobenzene polymers the photo-elastic behaviour of azobenzene elastomers is very sensitive to their chemical structure. Depending on it, a sample can be either stretched or uniaxially compressed along the electric vector of the linearly polarized light. For some chemical structures, elongation of a sample displays a non-monotonic behaviour with the light intensity. The results of the theory are compared with experimental data for azobenzene elastomers.
This work was supported by the RFBR (08-03-00150).
[1] V.Toshchevikov, M.Saphiannikova, G.Heinrich. J. Phys. Chem. B 2009, 113, 5032.