Synthesis of a Chemically Ordered Liquid Crystal Polymer

Links between chemical sequence structure in self-ordering polymers and their physics are still to be established. In order to address this problem we have proceeded to synthesize a sequentially ordered and regioregular terpolymer which exhibits liquid crystallinity. Neglecting end groups, this polymer is a constitutional isomer of a chemically random liquid crystal polymer reported previously. The synthesis of ordered-disordered chemical analogues has been difficult in the past either because of the absence of liquid crystallinity in highly regular chains or because of difficulties in developing regioregular polyesters. The mesogenic chain synthesized here contained dioxyphenyl (A), oxybenzoate (B), and pimeloate (C) structural units and was built from the condendation reaction between the symmetric monomer ABCBA and pimeloyl chloride. The structure of the regular polymer was verified by ¹³C NMR analysis of tetrachloroethane solutions and additional characterization was carried out through DSC and dilute solution viscometry.