Liquid crystal polymers processing data

As in the case of low-molecular liquid crystals the majority of information about the structure of LC polymers is obtained from their optical textures and X-ray diffraction data. Because of high viscosity of polymer melts, which results in retardation of all structural and relaxation processes it is quite difficult to obtain characteristic textures for LC polymers. As is noted by the majority of investigators smectic LC polymers form strongly birefringent films as well from solutions, as from melts11 27-... 

The brief data presented in this chapter concerning the initial steps of structure formation in LC polymer solutions, are significant from two viewpoints. On the one hand, the study of these processes provides quantitative information about the molecular parameters and IMM of LC polymers, which is the basis for the understanding and prediction of physico-chemical behaviour of polymeric liquid crystals in bulk. On the other hand, understanding of the features of intramolecular structure formation in dilute solution, reveals broad prospects for the investigation of the formation of lyotropic LC systems of polymers with mesogenic side groups, which is in its infancy 195). 

Polymer-based photochromic systems have been studied extensively and are attractive in terms of practical applications because of their advantages of stability and processability. A number of reviews and articles dealing with various aspects of photochromic polymers and photoactive biomaterials have been published. 68 Chiral photochromic peptides are discussed in Chapter 13, and photochromic liquid crystals and polymers for holographic data storage and nonlinear optics have been reviewed. 69 Specific stereochemical effects in chiral photoresponsive polymers include ... 

Recently, we have developed a real time pulsed NMR(RTPNMR) system(2) controlled by a microcomputer as shown in Figure 3 to study dynamics of structure formation in polymer systems. It has been successfully applied to study crystallization process (3), gelation process(4) and so on. In this paper, application of RTPNMR for characterization of curing process of epoxy resins, polymerization crosslinking process of diacetylenes, and orientation process of liquid crystalline polymers(LCPs) under magnetic field are described. Papers related to the detailed analysis of these data will appear in the near future. EXPERIMENTAL... 

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