Synthesis,liquid crystalline mesophases and morphologies of diblock copolymers composed of a poly(dimethylsiloxane) block and a nematic liquid crystalline block |
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| Authors: | Renbo Wei Jinyi Ma Hongxing Zhang |
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| Institution: | 1. Research Branch of Advanced Functional Materials, School of Microelectronics and Solid-State Electronics, High Temperature Resistant Polymer and Composites Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, P. R. China;2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials (MOE), Tsinghua University, Beijing, Chinaweirb10@uestc.edu.cn;4. Sichuan Institute of Piezoelectric and Acoustooptic Technology, Chongqing, China |
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| Abstract: | In this study, a series of liquid crystalline diblock copolymers, composed of a soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) block with a de?ned length and a side-on liquid crystalline poly(3??-acryloyloxypropyl 2,5-di(4?-butyloxybenzoyloxy) benzoate) (P3ADBB) block with different lengths, are synthesised by the atom transfer radical polymerisation. The macromolecular structures, liquid crystalline properties and the microphase-separated morphologies of the diblock copolymer are investigated by 1H NMR, FT-IR, GPC, POM, DSC and TEM. The results show that the well-de?ned diblock copolymers (PDMSn-b-P3ADBBm) possess four different soft/rigid ratios (n = 58, m = 10, 25, 42, 66) and relatively narrow molecular distributions (PDI ≤ 1.30). P3ADBB blocks of the copolymers show nematic sub-phases, which are identical to the mesomorphic behaviour of the homopolymer P3ADBB. After being annealed at 90°C in a vacuum oven for 48 h, the copolymers form a lamellar morphology when m = 10 and morphologies of PDMS spheres embedded in P3ADBB matrix when m = 25, 42 and 66. |
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| Keywords: | Liquid crystalline polymer diblock copolymers atom transfer radical polymerisation poly(dimethylsiloxane) microphase separation |
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