Comb-shaped polymer liquid-crystal

N. A. Plate and V. P. Shibaev. Comb-Shaped Polymers and Liquid Crystals, Plenum, New York (1988). 

Plate NA and Shibaev VP "Comb-Shaped Polymers and Liquid Crystals" Plenum Press, New York, 1987. 

Plat6 NA, Shibaev VP (1987) Comb-shaped polymers and liquid crystals. Plenum, New York... 

Plate, N.A. and Shibaev, V.P. (1987) Comb-shaped Polymers and Liquid Crystals, Plenum Press, New York-London. 

The study of the molecular organization of lyotropic and some thermotropic comb-shaped polymers was of primary importance in understanding the mechanism of formation of intramolecular orientational order [9] these concepts subsequently served as the basis for notions on ordering of liquid-crystal polymers on the molecular level. 

The creation of polymer systems which successfully combine the unique properties of low-molecular-weight liquid crystals and high-molecular-weight compounds with their capacity to form films, fibers, and coatings looked promising. However, after the first attempts to solve this problem in the head by synthesis of polymers with mesogenic groups directly bound with the main chain [9-11] (Fig. 6.1a), no less than 5-6 years elapsed before it was proposed in [1-6] that so-called comb-shaped polymers [12] be used as Ae most convenient matrix for synthesis of LC polymers. 

The orientation of comb-shaped polymers under the effect of electric and magnetic fields, the types of observed electro- and magneto-optical effects, and the characteristic values of the orientation order parameter, dielectric, and diamagnetic anisotropy serve as the basis for drawing analogies in the orientational behavior of low-molecular-weight liquid crystals and comb-shaped LC polymers. 

On the whole, it is possible to state that the tendency toward orientation of the side branches of the macromolecules forming the LC phase with the corresponding dielectric and diamagnetic anisotropy is the driving force of orientation processes in comb-shaped polymers. The interaction of the side groups with the external field sets the main chains in motion, which also determines certain specific features of polymer liquid crystals wtih respect to the effect of external fields. 

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