| Abstract: | The synthesis and properties of anisotropically ordered polymer networks with a controlled (molecular) nanostructure are reported. Polymer networks with only a single rigid segment (based on 1, 4-distyrylbenzene or hydroquinone) between crosslink points were prepared by a simple polyesterification procedure. Unswollen polymer networks containing only one of these rigid segments or a combination of the two were birefringent and exhibited a reversible thermotropic phase transition. The ordering within these networks is attributed to a microphase separation of rigid aromatic and flexible aliphatic segments rather than strictly to a shape-anisotropy driven liquid crystalline phase. The nature of ordering within these networks when swollen in 1, 2-dichlorobenzene is also discussed. |
