Synthesis and properties of functionalized polymers

Abstract

This paper describes the rational design of four different types of functionalized polymers with interesting material properties. (i) Liquid crystalline (LC) side-group polymers with a high spontaneous polarization in the ferroelectric chiral smectic C∗ phase can be prepared by a proper selection of the chiral groups. The additional functionalization with non-linear optical chromophores makes these materials interesting for non-linear optics. (ii) Chiral LC polymers, which are functionalized with crosslinkable groups, can be converted into LC elastomers. The mechanical orientability of these elastomers leads to new piezoelectric materials. (iii) The incorporation of ferrocene units into a LC matrix allows the reversible formation of LC ionomers by a redox reaction. This leads to a gelation of the LC polymer system. (iv) The curing (dense crosslinking) of a polymer matrix is one possibility to stabilize the polar order of dye molecules, which is necessary for frequency doubling. This can lead to large and stable non-linear optical coefficients.