Morphology and deformation behaviour of a liquid crystalline polymer containing laterally attached pentaphenyl rods

The morphology-and deformation behaviour of a liquid crystalline polymer, consisting of both, laterally attached transverse rods and terminally attached rods were studied. A plaque specimen of the polymer was prepared using the melt-compression method, which exhibited highly anisotropic Poisson's ratio behaviour. In its through-thickness direction its Poisson's ratio was approximately 0.54, and in the in-plane it was approximately 0.43. This anisotropic behaviour is explained by the anisotropic morphology of the polymer plaque resulting from its compression preparation. The high Poisson's ratio in the through-thickness direction is due to the unusual chain structure of the polymer. A simple analytical model is presented to describe the nonlinear strain dependent Poisson's ratio behaviour of the material.