Abstract
ABSTRACTIt is a challenge to tailor the phase behavior and phase structure of side-chain liquid crystalline polymers carrying targeted ordered structures and functional properties. In this work, liquid crystalline (LC) properties of cholesterol side-chain polymers without spacer were controlled by molecular weight (Mn) and copolymerization. On the one hand, two series of homopolymers without the spacer, poly (methacrylic acid) cholesterol esters (PCholMCn) and poly (acrylic acid) cholesterol esters (PCholACn) with different Mn and low polydispersity, were achieved by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. The experiment results indicated that the Mn had little effect on the LC properties of PCholMCn and all homopolymers formed the smectic A phase. However, the phase structures of PCholAC were found to be strongly Mn dependent. The polymers PCholACn were amorphous when the Mn was lower than a critical value of approximately 12103 g/mol. But when the Mn exceeded the critical value, the polymers exhibited smectic A phase. On the other hand, two kinds of random copolymers, poly(cholest-5-en-3-methacrylate)-co-polymethyl acrylate (PCholMC-co-MA) and poly(cholest-5-en-3-acrylate)-co-polymethyl acrylate (PCholAC-co-MA) were synthesized with various composition. The findings suggested that the steric effect of main-chain and the interaction of mesogens would promote the formation of LC phase.
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