Polysiloxanes substituted with forked mesogens

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Abstract
Mesomorphic properties including structural aspects are investigated in a homologous series of forked side chain polymers: the mesogenic units, which are conventionally attached to a polysiloxane backbone via a flexible spacer, possess two long aliphatic tails at their extremities as in forked polycatenar molecules. Several polymers with different proportions, x, of such mesogenic units have been studied. The influence of this parameter is especially interesting on the structure of the mesophases: the layer spacings of the fluid smectics observed at high temperature vary irregularly as a function of x. Microsegregation into sublayers is observed for low values of x while ordered phases with lamellar or/and columnar features appear at low temperatures.