Elastic deformations in a magnetic field of a liquid-crystalline polymer with mesogenic groups in the main and side chains

Abstract

Orientational elastic deformations in a magnetic field and phase transition temperatures of a thermotropically mesogenic “combined” aromatic polyester with mesogenic groups, both in the main and in the side chains, have been investigated in the range of 900 to 10,200 mol. wt. It was shown that in this molecular weight range the birefringence of a completely oriented nematic and correspondingly, the degree of its orientational order S are independent on molecular weight. When the relative temperature ΔT changes from −2 to −30°C the orientational order parameter increases from 0.35 to 0.55. The bend elasticity constants K 3 coincide in the order of magnitude with those for high and low molecular weight nematics investigated previously and their dependence on molecular weight has not been detected.