Structure-property relationships of smectic liquid crystalline polyacrylates as revealed by SAXS

• Main Authors: Pereira Fabiano V., Borsali Redouane, Ritter Olga M.S., Gonçalves Paulo F., Merlo Aloir A., Silveira Nadya P. da
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Química 2006-01-01
• Series: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society
• Subjects: polyacrylates; SAXS; smectic phase; mesophase behavior; liquid-crystalline polymers
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532006000200017
• ISSN: 0103-5053; 1678-4790

The influence of the chemical structure of the mesogenic groups and the length of the spacer groups on the phase behavior in a series of side-chain liquid crystalline polyacrylates (SCLCP) have been studied using Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM). Analyses of the mesophase arrangement in unaligned and aligned samples by magnetic field are reported. The role of the spacer length on the local packing and on the thickness of the layers encountered in the SmA and SmC mesophases is elucidated. The tilt angles theta of the mesogenic cores related to the normal of the layers in the SmC mesophases are measured. A study about the degree of order as a function of temperature for the smectic polymers was possible using SAXS measurements. A particular arrangement in one of the studied SCLCPs is related to the coexistence of two different phases.