Effect of mesophase order on the dynamics of side group liquid crystalline polymers

Rheology and X-ray scattering were employed to probe the viscoelastic properties and structural transitions of model cyano-biphenyl-based side-group liquid-crystalline polymers (SGLCPs) with molecular weights ranging from 91 to 1900 kg/mol. Temperature-dependent rheological data show a rapid change in dynamics over a small temperature range. Small-angle X-ray scattering reveals these changes to be associated with an isotropic to smectic transition with an appreciable biphasic region. The presence of a biphasic region is attributed to inhomogeneity in chain structure resulting from incomplete attachment of mesogens to every monomeric unit in the SGLCP polymer. While isotropic and smectic phase data may be separately time-temperature shifted to create master curves for the individual phases, we argue against attempts to achieve superposition between the two phases in the high-frequency regime, since smectic ordering may not simply slow the dynamics but also increase the modulus of the sample. Molecular weight has a strong influence on rheology in the isotropic phase, where an entanglement plateau emerges; however, the smectic-phase rheology is dominated by the layer structure and is fairly insensitive to molecular weight.