Liquid crystalline polymers formation

Strong elongational deformation and use of matrix polymers whose viscosity is higher than that of TLCP phase are better to ensure uniform and fine fibril formation. But application of compatibilizing techniques to in situ composite preparation can be useful to get the most desirable products. These can reduce the high costs of the liquid crystalline polymers and expensive special engineering plastics used for the in situ composite preparation and reduce the processing cost, whereas they can increase the performance of produced in situ composites, hence, their applications, too. 

Table I demonstrates that most liquid crystalline polymers lacking a spacer are formed from a flexible polyacrylate backbone. In contrast, the methyl substituent in polymethacrylate backbones both reduce main chain mobility and imposes additional steric barriers to mesophase formation. Therefore, successful liquid crystalline formation of polymethacrylates has been achieved only...

Monolayers are best formed from water-insoluble molecules. This is expressed well by the title of Gaines s classic book Insoluble Monolayers at Liquid-Gas Interfaces [104]. Carboxylic acids (7-13 in Table 1, for example), sulfates, quaternary ammonium salts, alcohols, amides, and nitriles with carbon chains of 12 or longer meet this requirement well. Similarly, well-behaved monolayers have been formed from naturally occurring phospholipids (14-17 in Table 1, for example), as well as from their synthetic analogs (18,19 in Table 1, for example). More recently, polymerizable surfactants (1-4, 20, 21 in Table 1, for example) [55, 68, 72, 121], preformed polymers [68, 70, 72,122-127], liquid crystalline polymers [128], buckyballs [129, 130], gramicidin [131], and even silica beads [132] have been demonstrated to undergo monolayer formation on aqueous solutions. 

Increasing the concentration of surfactants in water to a level above the CMC leads to the formation of rod-like micelles and, subsequently, liquid crystals [251]. Both liquid crystals and liquid-crystalline polymers [252] have been used as media for small particle generation [253, 254] and have also acted as piezoelectric devices [255]. Of particular interest are metallomesogens, the metal complexes of organic ligands which exhibit liquid crystalline behavior [255],... 

The objective of this review is to characterize the excimer formation and energy migration processes in aryl vinyl polymers sufficiently well that the excimer probe may be used quantitatively to study polymer structure. One such area of application in which some measure of success has already been achieved is in the analysis of the thermodynamics of multicomponent systems and the kinetics of phase separation. In the future, it is likely that the technique will also prove fruitful in the study of structural order in liquid crystalline polymers. 

The development is reviewed of liquid-crystalline polymers whose mesophase formation derives from the nature of the chemical units in the main chain. The emphasis lies primarily on highly aromatic condensation polymers and their applications. The general properties of nematic phases formed by such polymers are surveyed and some chemical structures capable of producing nematic phases are classified in relation to their ability to form lyotropic and thermotropic systems. The synthesis, properties, physical structure and applications of two of the most important lyotropic systems and of a range of potentially important thermotropic polymers are discussed with particular reference to the production and use of fibres, films and anisotropic mouldings. 

The Principles of Formation and Some Properties of Smectic, Nematic and Cholesteric Mesophases of Liquid-Crystalline Polymers... 

Molecular recognition directed self-assembling of organized phases has been described recently in the formation 1) of mesophases by association of complementary molecular component, as in 13 (23) 2) of supramolecular liquid crystalline polymers of type 14 (24) and 3) of ordered solid state structures, such as that represented by 15 (25). In all these cases, the incorporation of NLO active groups may be expected to produce materials whose SHG properties would depend on molecular recognition induced self-organization. 

E is also independent of chain stiffness and chain interactions, these factors play a role in the height of the glass-rubber transition temperature and the melting point. A stiffer chain, therefore, does not result in a stiffer polymer except, sometimes, in an indirect way, namely when stiff chains enable the formation of high orientation, such as in liquid-crystalline polymers (see 4.6). 

Essentially, then, no new, large-volume, highly profitable fibers have been developed since the mid-1950s. Instead, the existing ones have become commodities with all the economic impact thereby implied. No major chemical engineering processes have been added, although the previously described ones have been modified to allow for spinning of liquid crystalline polymers or the formation of gel spun fibers. Research activity has been reduced and centered essentially on modifications of fiber size, shape, and properties, and many variants now are successfully marketed. Production volumes have increased enormously for nylon, polyester, and polyolefin. 

Differences in tacticity were also reflected by thermal data. While the iso-tropization temperature of (-)-poly-(IV-ll) and ( )-poly-(IV-ll),synthesized using initiator 1, stayed approximately unchanged, the isotropization temperatures for the chiral liquid crystalline polymers shifted to higher values when initiators 2 or 3 were used. The difference was up to 7 °C. If the decreased glass transition temperatures (Tg) for the chiral analogues were taken into account, the temperature range of the liquid crystalline phase was broadened by up to 12 °C. This means that a certain diad must be responsible for this behavior. The authors assumed that the diad cmHT was most suitable one for the formation of stable liquid crystalline phases in poly(norbornene) main chains. 

In this chapter lyotropic liquid crystalline polymers are considered, where micelle-like organizations of the macromolecules cause the formation of mesophases in defined concentration and temperature regions. For these polymers it has to be assumed that the polymer backbone or the monomer units must contain an amphiphilic character. 

The objective of this work has been to generate films, tapes or ribbons which might serve as a prepreg from blends of either an Ultem or a PEEK or a high molecular weight PPS with various liquid crystalline polymers, to identify the parameters that control the formation of reinforcing microfibrils of LCP phase, and to study the mechanical properties of the composite films. 

Vermant, J.M. Mewis, J. Picken, S.J. Band formation upon cessation of flow in liquid-crystalline polymers. J. Rheol. 1994, 38 (5), 1571-1589. 

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