Influence of alkoxy tail length and unbalanced mesogenic core on phase behavior of mesogen‐jacketed liquid crystalline polymers |
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| Authors: | Si Chen Lan‐Ying Zhang Long‐Cheng Gao Xiao‐Fang Chen Xing‐He Fan Zhihao Shen Qi‐Feng Zhou |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;2. College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China |
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| Abstract: | When the flexible terminal substituent changes from butoxy to hexyloxy or longer, smectic C (SC) liquid crystalline phase was firstly reported to develop from a kind of mesogen‐jacketed liquid crystalline polymer (MJLCP) whose mesogenic side groups are unbalancedly bonded to the main chain without spacers. A series of MJLCPs, poly4,4′‐bis(4‐alkoxyphenyl)‐2‐vinylbiphenyl(carboxide)] (nC2Vp, n is the number of the carbons in the alkoxy groups, n = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12) were designed and synthesized successfully via free radical polymerization. The molecular weights of the polymers were characterized with gel permeation chromatography, and the liquid crystalline properties were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarized light microscopy experiments, and 1D, 2D wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction. Comparing with the butoxy analog, the polymer with unbalanced mesogenic core and shorter flexible substituents (n = 2, 4) keeps the same smectic A (SA) phase, but other polymers with longer terminal flexible substituents (n = 6, 8, 10, and 12) can develop into a well‐defined SC phase instead of SA phase. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 505–514, 2009 |
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| Keywords: | functionalization of polymers liquid‐crystalline polymers (LCP) structure |
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