Thermotropic liquid-crystalline comb-like polymers with polyacrylamide main chain—I. Synthesis and mesomorphic structures of polymers with lipobiphenyl side chains

Abstract

The synthesis of polymerizable lipobiphenyls, the study of the kinetics of their radical polymerization giving comb-like polymers, and the study of the thermotropic behaviour of the polymers are reported. Utilization of all the information provided by X-ray diffraction diagrams showed that polymers with polyacrylamide main chains and lipobiphenyl side chains exhibit successively, between room temperature and isotropization temperature, two mesophases: an ordered tilted double layer smectic phase SI2, and a disordered tilted double layer smectic phase SC2.