New side-group liquid-crystalline polymethacrylates

A new route of synthesis of liquid‐crystalline polymethacrylates was investigated. The synthetic route involved side‐group liquid‐crystalline polymethacrylates (LCPMA) with a turned ester group between the aromatic rings in the central unit of mesogens (2) as compared with the usual LCPMA (1). For a series of compounds of this type the liquid‐crystalline properties were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing microscopy and X‐ray diffraction techniques. Generally stable smectic phases were found for these isomeric LCPMA. The described synthetic route opens possibilities to form new polymers from a wide field of educts.