Liquid Crystal Elastomers with Piezoelectric Properties

Conclusions

Our measurements show clearly that with cholesteric elastomers, piezoelectric materials with novel properties are accessible. Crystalline materials have extremely high Young moduli, thus the piezoelectric response to applied stress on a crystal is related to to a very small deformation. In contrast to crystais, the Young modulus of an LCE is smaller by some orders of magnitude, Thus LCEs are a rather soft material, where small stress causes a large deformation and simultaneously a significant piezoelectric voltage. Although work in this field is only in its infancy and the potential of these new materials has not yet fully been realized, we can conclude that cholesteric elastomers show great promise for future use as piezoelectric transducers.