Thermal expansion of photomechanical materials^†

A quartz thermal expansion apparatus was developed to measure the thermal expansion of photomechanical plastics. Three different methods of motion measurement correlated with a maximum error of ±1% for three different models of Hysol 4290 epoxy. The thermal expansion of a 30% plasticized epoxy was determined and was found to exhibit essentially the same characteristics as the 4290 epoxy except for a shift in the temperature scale.