Syntheses and characterizations of side-chain liquid crystalline polymers exhibiting chiral smectic-C phase

Abstract

The syntheses and characterizations of the chiral monomer, n-Butyl 4``-[(R)-1-methyl-2-[6-(vinyloxy)hexyloxy]ethyloxy]biphenyl-4-carboxylate and the nonchiral monomer, 11-[(4-Cyano-4``-biphenyl) oxy]undecanyl vinyl ether and their side-chain liquid-crystal polymers and copolymers are described. The polymerizations were carried out with cationic initiator. The optically active monomer was prepared from the optically active (S)-(-)-ethyl lactate. The phase transition behaviors were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and optical polarized microscopy. The copolymers having the nonchiral monomer more than 65mol-\% exhibit smectic mesophase and the copolymer containing 65mol-\% of the nonchiral monomer, especially, shows chiral smectic-C phase.