Chiral thermotropic liquid crystal polymers

In Part I we present a survey of the work done in the preparation and characterization of synthetic and semi-synthetic chiral thermotropic liquid crystal polymers. For convenience, we have grouped the polymeric materials (until now reported) according to the nature of the repeat unit and relevant position of the mesogen, side chain and main chain polymers. In Part II we report on the results obtained in our laboratories on optically active thermotropic polyesters containing mesogenic aromatic dyads or triads based on / -oxybenzoic acid. 

Side Chain Chiral Thermotropic Liquid Crystal Polymers... 

To our knowledge, this is the first example of the coexistence of both twisted smectic and cholesteric phases in thermotropic liquid crystal polymers. Previous preparations of thermotropic polymers by the use of chiral derivatives both incorporated in the macromolecular backbone and pendant to it as side chain substituents (comb-like polymers) resulted in either cholesteric or smectic " polymeric products. 

Among the several liquid crystal polymers that have been studied in recent years those containing intrinsically chiral elements with a prevalent chirality hold a particular position. Some of these, in fact, by virtue of their structural characteristics, assume a spatial array with nematic planes stacked in a superhelical structure characterized by a prevalent screw sense and are known as cholesteric phase. This kind of order can be controlled by either concentration in solution (lyotropic systems) or temperature in bulk (thermotropic systems). 

Although instances of lyotropic PLCs predate studies of thermotropic PLCs, as they involved solutions of comparatively esoteric species — virus particles and helical polypeptides — studies of these liquid crystals were isolated to a few laboratories. Nevertheless, observations on these lyotropic PLCs did stimulate the first convincing theoretical rationalizations of spontaneously ordered fluid phases (see below). Much of the early experimental work was devoted to characterizing the texture of polypeptide solutions. (23) The chiral polypeptides (helical rods) generate a cholesteric structure in the solution the cholesteric pitch is strongly dependent on polymer concentration, dielectric properties of the solvent, and polymer molecular weight. Variable pitch (<1 - 100 pm) may be stabilized and locked into the solid state by (for example) evaporating the solvent in the presence of a nonvolatile plasticizer.(24)... 

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