Two New Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polyesters and their Composites: Synthesis and Characterization

Abstract

Two new series of liquid crystalline polyesters were synthesized using melt polycondensation reaction.Glass fiber,as a reinforcement,was meltpolymerized with 4-acetoxybenzoic(ABA),4,4＇-diacetoxybiphenyl, isophthalic acid(IA) and terephthalic acid(TA) to make TLCP/GF composites with a good mechanical properties.All the obtained compounds were characterized by conventional spectroscopic methods. The structure of the target compounds and intermediates was conformed by the IR, 1H NMR and SEM. The thermal behavior of the polymers has been characterized using polarized optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The effect of monomer structure and mechanical properties has been investigated on the prepared polyesters. These compounds show a high birefringent Schlierene texture characteristic of the nematic phase on heating and cooling experiments. This was further confirmed using differential scanning calorimetric investigations.The melting points of polymers having a central 4,4’-biphenyldicarboxylate residue have broad endotherms. The glass transition temperature values of polyesters are not effect by the glass fiber.According to the SEM result showed that the composite had strong fiber-matrix adhesion.The effect of copolymerization with added glass fiber in synthesis process is compared with that of the anlogous homopolyesters by other processing mode.Our finding shows that the copolymers exhibit reduced technical process and maintained mechanical properties.