Liquid-crystalline main-chain copolyester

Although studies concerning main chain liquid crystalline polymers were originated by Onsager (la) and Ishihara (lb) in the late 1940 s, extensive work in this field did not really begin until the early 1970 s. Jackson and Kuhfuss (2) reported the first thermotropic polyester by modifying polyethylene terephthalate with various amounts of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA). They found that the copolyester with HBA content of at least 35 mole % have opaque melts. Subsequent studies in the area of aromatic polyesters by various authors resulted in a large number of patents and publication. (3.) These polymers were all derived from unsubstituted and... 

To date, reports of investigations on the gas transport properties of main chain liquid crystalline polymers appear to have been limited to the work conducted in our laboratory. Chiou and Paul (4.) have briefly described the transport parameters of an extruded film of an LCP having a similar structure to the commercial product Vectra. This copolyester belongs to the family of napthylene thermotropic polymers (NTP s) commercialized by Hoechst-Celanese Corp. whose synthesis and properties have been described previously (iLS.). Transient permeation experiments were conducted with a series of gases. The effective... 

Preparation of Main Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymers (MCLCPs) Table 8. Representation of some typical structures of polyesters and copolyesters. 

There is a further very important class of main-chain liquid-crystal polymers that differ from those discussed above by being random copolyesters based on polymers such as poly(hydroxybenzoic acid) -fO— —C=0), where — — represents a para-disubstituted benzene ring (para-phenylene unit). The random copolymers include units of various other forms containing phenylene or naphthylene rings and their introduction reduces the crystallinity and melting point considerably without necessarily lowering the value of Polymers of these types have... 

Guezala et al. [420] studied the viscoelastic behaviour of solutions of the thermotropic main chain liquid crystalline X7G (see Fig. 160), Le. a copolyester (M 20 kg/mol) of poly(hydroxy benzoic acid) (60%) and poly(ethylene tere-phthalate) (40%) in m-cresoi the material used is non-random with respect to chain structure and domains of poly(hydroxy benzoic acid) have been reported. Solutions were studied, varying in concentration from 2.5 to 45 wt%. Special care was taken to avoid water absorption, because in its presence degradation and/or trans terification might occur. 

The commercial polymers used in the study are characterized in Table 1. The polypropylenes PP1-PP5 were homopolymers exhibiting different melt viscosities (see Fig. 1) supplied by Neste Chemicals. Liquid-crystalline polymer 1 (LCPl) (Vectra A950 by Hoechst Celanese) is a totally aromatic polyester-type thermotropic main-chain LCP copolymer based on p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) and 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (HNA). Liquid-crystalline polymer 2 (LCP2) (Rodrun LC-3000 by Unitika Ltd) is a more flexible thermotropic main-chain LCP copolyester consisting of 60%... 

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