Structure investigations of a crosslinkable main chain liquid crystalline copolyester by infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray scattering

FTIR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide‐angle X‐ray scattering (WAXS) were used for the characterization of structural properties of a cross‐linkable ternary liquid crystalline (lc) copolyester and its binary model copolyesters. The copolyesters based on itaconoylbis(4‐oxybenzoic acid), sebacoylbis(4‐oxybenzoic acid) and 2‐methylhydroquinone were annealed at different temperatures to analyse the structural changes of mesogenic and spacer segments due to their phase transitions. The results of the DSC and WAXS measurements are useful to explain the small effects in the IR spectra connected with polymer morphology. FTIR spectroscopy is able to provide information about the molecular structure along the polymer chains and also about the interactions between these chains. Micro‐ and macromolecular structures influence the orientation and crosslinking processes in dependence on temperature and time. It was shown that an increase in the ordered state and quality of crystallinity was obtained using different annealing procedures.