Copolymers with cholesteric side groups

Liquid Crystalline Order in Polymers and Copolymers with Cholesteric Side Groups... 

The article covers synthesis, structure and properties of thermotropic liquid-crystalline (LC) polymers with mesogenic side groups. Approaches towards the synthesis of such systems and the conditions for their realization in the LC state are presented, as well as the data revealing the relationship between the molecular structure of an LC polymer and the type of mesophase formed. Specific features of thermotropic LC polymers and copolymers of nematic, smectic and cholesteric types are considered. 

The information on the structure of the cholesteric mesophase of polymers is currently limited to data on cholesteric polymers of the comb-shaped type. The comb-shaped structure of macromolecules with mesogenic side groups determines their tendency to form layered structures. In this respect, the question arises of how the helical supermolecular structure is formed in such a system and what its features are in comparison to the cholesteric structure of low-molecular-weight liquid crystals. The answer to this question is given in [81, 82], where the structure of homopolymers and copolymers forming the cholesteric mesophase was studied. 

In our work with copolymers of cholesteryl methacrylate with a number alkyImethacrylates we have shown (21) that these considerations are qualitatively valid also for copolymers in their condensed state. It was found that for a random copolymer of a fixed composition the degree of organization dramatically decreased when side groups of the non-mesogenic comonomer unit interfered through steric hindrance with the formation of ordered arrangements of cholesteric side groups,... 

---