Properties of Liquid Crystal Epoxy Thermosets Cured in a Magnetic Field

3 Properties of Liquid Crystal Epoxy Thermosets Cured in a Magnetic Field 

The use of a magnetic field to prepare macroscopically oriented polymers has an important advantage over mechanical stretching or electrical alignment since samples with different geometries (rods, sheets, and blocks) can be readily prepared [39-48]. 

Samples without externally enforced orientation exhibit some spontaneous alignment of the molecules in the direction roughly parallel to the capillary axis, due to interactions with boimdary surfaces. After applying a magnetic field in the direction perpendicular to the capillary axis orientation of the molecules changes and the crescent-shaped reflections become shorter and less diffuse. This means that the applied magnetic field of 1.8T was quite effective in enforcing requested orientation of the sample [49]. 

Compared to samples cured outside the field under the same conditions, the oriented LCTs show an improvement in their mechanical properties for the diepoxides and diamines combinations 

Sample No. Tensile Modulus (GPa) Elongation at Break (%) Break Strength (MPa) 

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