Orientation of Thermotropic Liquid-Crystalline Polyesters in High Magnetic Fields

Strongly oriented poly-crystalline samples of polyesters containing mesogenic moieties and flexible spacers in the main chain have been produced by slowly cooling the molten samples in magnetic fields of up to 16 Tesla. This simple method appears to be successful for those polymers forming a “true” nematic phase over an extended range of temperatures. Cholesteric polymers are not oriented. Mesogenic polymers (such as SEB-5, SUC-5, and SEB-7) which pass only through a state of partial parallel ordering of chain segments before cystallizing cannot be oriented macroscopically. In these samples crystallization may interfere with the chain alignment in the magnetic field. In contrast to low molecular weight liquid crystals, the isotropic-liquid crystalline transition of the polyesters investigated has a strong thermal hysteresis.