Thermotropic Behavior of Side-Chain Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymers

5 Morphology and Thermotropic Behavior of Side-Chain Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymers 

The amorphous segment of microphase-separated amorphous/liquid crystalline block copolymers may influence the ordering of the mesogens at the interface, as well as the size and discreteness of that interface. Living copolymerizations are therefore being used to determine the effect of the morphology and domain size on the thermotropic behavior of side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymers. 

As summarized in Table 14, block copolymers of methyl methacrylate and 6-[4 -(4 - -butoxyphenoxycarbonyl)phenoxy]hexyl methacrylate (PMMA-PMOB) [90, 91] or 6-[4 -(4 -cyanophenylazo)phenoxy]hexyl methacrylate (PMMA-PMAC) [90] demonstrate that liquid crystalline block copolymers behave similarly to standard block copolymers. That is, entry 1 shows that short blocks are miscible, such that this PMMA-PMOB copolymer exhibits a 

Entry Copolymer Block length Wt. ratio Thermotropic behavior (°C) Ref. 

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