Search results for "Mesogen"

Ferroelectric block copolymers

1997

A block copolymer consisting of polystyrene and a side chain ferroelectric liquid crystalline polymer was synthesized using polymer analogous chemistry on a monodisperse poly(styrene-b-isoprene). Composition was adjusted to give lamellar microstructure after addition of the mesogenic side groups. If placed in an LC cell without orientation of domains, no ferroelectric response was observed. After shearing the thin film, presumably due to alignment of lamellae, a bistable ferroelectric switching could be detected.

Molecular Mobility in Oriented and Unoriented Membranes Based on Poly[2-(Aziridin-1-yl)ethanol]

2021

Unoriented and oriented membranes based on dendronized polymers and copolymers obtained by chemical modification of poly[2-(aziridin-1-yl) ethanol] (PAZE) with the dendron 3,4,5-tris[4-(n-dodecan-1-yloxy)benzyloxy]benzoate were considered. DSC, XRD, CP-MAS NMR and DETA, contribute to characterize the tendency to crystallize, the molecular mobility of the benzyloxy substituent, the dendritic liquid crystalline group and the clearing transition. The orientation of the mesogenic chain somewhat hindered this molecular motion, especially in the full substituted PAZE. The fragility, free volume and thermal expansion coefficients of these membranes near the glass transition are related to the orie…

1982

The electro-optical properties of liquid crystalline polymers with polar mesogenic units in the side chain were investigated. It could be shown, that in an electric field, they show all effects known from low molecular weight liquid crystals, e.g. the Freedericksz-transition, the DAP-effect, the formation of William's domain, and the dynamic scattering. The optical response times are slightly longer than for low molecular weight liquid crystals, but in some cases at higher temperatures as short as 200 ms. By comparison of different polymers and some corresponding liquid crystalline monomers, it is found that: (1) the difference between the measuring temperature and the glass transition temp…

1987

X-ray scattering experiments on oriented polysiloxanes with paired mesogens and different distances between these swallow-tailed side groups show a remarkable dependence of the smectic monolayer thickness on the degree of dilution, whereas the interplanar distance of the side groups remain nearly constant. Due to the dominating interaction of the mesogenic moieties, the flexible main chain is forced to take part in the layer formation. A packing model is proposed to explain the results of the X-ray studies. For polymers with five or more dimethylsiloxane copolymer segments, a diffuse scattering appears in the smectic as well as in the isotropic phase. This scattering is independent of the o…

Dimesogenic liquid crystalline oligosiloxanes

1995

Abstract In this paper, the syntheses, phase properties and ferroelectric properties of new liquid crystalline oligosiloxane dimesogens are described. Smectic phases are dominant in this class of materials. Spontaneous polarizations are in the range of 10 to approximately 100 nCcm−2. The materials show interesting properties for display applications. Although offering higher mechanical stability than low molar mass materials, their switching is significantly faster (switching times in the range of some 10−5s) than is the case for similar side group polymers (typically some 10−3s). Therefore these new oligosiloxane derivatives may be ideal for building flexible displays. In addition, mixture…

Polymers with Side-chain Mesogenic Units

1989

Liquid crystalline (LC) polymers are usually prepared by combining formanisotropic structural units (so-called mesogenic groups) and polymer chains (Figure 1). The mesogenic groups used for this purpose are rigid rod-like or disc-like units, which are known to favour LC phases in the case of low molar mass substances. There are two main ways of combining the mesogenic groups and polymer chains. The mesogenic groups can either be incorporated actually into the polymer chains (LC main-chain polymers, see Volume 5, Chapter 38) or they can be attached to flexible polymer chains as side groups (LC side-chain polymers).

Structure and morphology of liquid-crystalline polymers

2007

Liquid-crystalline phases are characterized by structures intermediate between a three-dimensionally ordered crystal and a disordered fluid. Polymers with liquid-crystalline structures can be obtained from specific monomers containing mesogenic groups with a tendency to form liquid-crystalline phases. These mesogenic groups are either incorporated into the main chain or attached to a chain as side groups. In both cases liquid-crystalline structures, and also enantiotropic liquid-crystalline phases, have been reported. Smectic polymers are characterized by layered structures with long-range order in the direction of the layer normal and two-dimensional short-range order within the layers. Th…

Freely-Suspended and Transferred Freely-Suspended Films of Polymeric Liquid Crystals

1993

Freely-suspended (FS) liquid-crystal (LC) films of a polymethylsiloxane homo- and a copolymer with different mesogenic side groups have been prepared and investigated. For both substances the preparation of the films succeeded only in the isotropic phase but the higher ordered phases were reached after cooling. The films of the homopolymer have only been obtained with thicknesses estimated to be in the pm-range and with an unusual “Book-Shelf” orientation of the smectic layers. In contrast, the films of the copolymer were thinner and showed a homeotropic orientation of the mesogens in the smectic A phase. Interestingly, this material exhibited a different layer spacing in film and bulk, alt…

Differences between smectic homo‐ and co‐polysiloxanes as a consequence of microphase separation

2005

This paper compares smectic phases formed from LC‐homo‐ and LC‐co‐polysiloxanes. In the homopolysiloxane, each repeating unit of the polymer chain is substituted with a mesogen, whereas in the copolysiloxanes mesogenic repeating units are separated by dimethylsiloxane units. Despite a rather similiar phase sequence of the homo‐ and co‐polysiloxanes—higher ordered smectic, smectic C* (SmC*), smectic A (SmA) and isotropic—the nature of their phases differs strongly. For the copolymers the phase transition SmC* to SmA is second order and of the ‘de Vries’ type with a very small thickness change of the smectic layers. Inside the SmA phase, however, the smectic thickness decreases strongly on ap…

Structure and elastic properties of smectic liquid crystalline elastomer films

2001

Mechanical measurements, x-ray investigations, and optical microscopy are employed to characterize the interplay of chemical composition, network topology, and elastic response of smectic liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) in various mesophases. Macroscopically ordered elastomer films of submicrometer thicknesses were prepared by cross linking freely suspended smectic polymer films. The cross-linked material preserves the mesomorphism and phase transitions of the precursor polymer. The elastic response of the smectic LCE is entropic, and the corresponding elastic moduli are of the order of MPa. In the tilted ferroelectric smectic-C* phase, the network structure plays an important role. Du…