Effect of chiral end group variation on the properties of ferroelectric copolymers

Abstract

Abstract The effect of changing the chiral end chain on the phase behavior and physical properties of some lactate-based side-chain copolymers are reported. Two classes of polymers have been studied, one with hydrocarbon groups and the other with fluorocarbon groups as terminal chains attached to the chiral center through an ester linkage. While the hydrocarbon materials exhibit larger range of the ferroelectric smectic-C* phase than the corresponding fluorocarbon analogs, the spontaneous polarization of the copolymers with fluorocarbon tails are found to be substantially larger than the corresponding hydrocarbon derivatives. The phase behavior of the copolymers is also compared with that of the corresponding unattached low molar mass side-group mesogens.