Rheological and Magnetic Field Effects on Ordering Transitions in Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polymers

9422180 Winter拟议的研究的目标是（1）将大分子组织成高度有序的结构，（2）研究流动和相变对这种秩序的影响。 为此，我们选择液晶聚合物，因为它们的延伸链构象和它们的晶体样光学性质，允许直接观察的现象。 实验方法将主要是流变仪和偏光显微镜（锥镜）。 由于对加工过程中的行为缺乏了解，阻碍了近年来大量合成的工程塑料的广泛使用。 重点是通过物理过程而不是化学过程来进行形态开发，因为最终用途的性质既取决于聚合物的化学性质，也取决于加工过程（需要改进）。 该研究将有助于发现利用相变将聚合物组织成具有上级性能的新型形态的加工策略。 ***

9422180 Winter The proposed research has the objectives of (1) organizing macromolecules into highly ordered structures and (2) studying the effects of flow and phase transitions on this order. For that purpose, we chose liquid crystalline polymers because of their extended chain conformation and their crystal like optical properties which allow direct observation of the phenomena. The experimental methods will mostly be rheometry and polarizing microscopy (conoscopy). %%% The lack of understanding of the behavior during processing has prevented the widespread use of engineering plastics which have been synthesized in abundance in recent years. Emphasis is on morphology development by physical processes rather than chemical processes since the end-use properties are as much determined by processing (which needs to be advanced) as by the chemistry of the polymers. The proposed research will help to find processing strategies which utilize phase transitions to organize polymers into novel morphologies with superior properties. ***