Copolymerization Effects of Non-Mesogenic Components on the Characteristics of Liquid Crystalline Side-Chain Polymers

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Abstract
The effects of copolymerization with non-mesogenic components on liquid crystalline side-chain polymers (LCSP) were studied from the point of view of improvements of thermal and electro-optical characteristics in applications to display and recording devices. LCSPs were designed and synthesized from cyanobiphenyl acrylate monomers with two different alkyl-oxy spacer lengths (C6 or C11/abbreviated as 6CBA and 11CBA, respectively) and from various acrylate or methacrylate monomers. Micro-phase separation phenomena were observed in polymers having non-mesogenic components. The effects of copolymerization of acrylate non-mesogenic monomer (NMM) were compared with those of methacrylate NMM on these phenomena. The results indicate that the degrees and stabilities of micro-phase separation of copolymers consisting of methacrylate NMM were observed to be higher than those with acrylate NMM. Stabilities ofthe mesophase of individual mesomorphic droplets were found to decrease with increasing non-mesogenic monomer content. This unstabilized effect was found to be more pronounced in LCSP with acrylates as the NMM component than in those with methacrylates. All the LCSPs except the 11CBA homopolymer were found to respond to an applied electric field.