ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines fundamentals of liquid crystalline (LC) properties and focuses on micromechanical properties of macroscopic liquid crystalline materials. It outlines the fundamentals of LC materials, including molecular structures, phases, anisotropic properties, measurements, and elastic energy, and then describes the strategies for micromechanical manipulation induced by LC properties. The chapter surveys essential properties of a liquid crystal and briefly reviews macroscopic morphologies of liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) in an attempt to provide micromechanical actuators. It considers the order of rod-like molecules. The director vectors are responsive to external fields so that liquid crystals show anisotropic interactions with external fields. Micro domain morphology has an effect on phase behaviour of an LCP segment. It has been reported that LC phase behavior sometimes has an effect on micro domain size in an LC block copolymer. The magnetic alignment of microdomain structures could depend on an LC phase, magnetic susceptibility, and elastic energy of mesogenic alignment as well as amicrodomain morphology.
