Amphotropic Ionomers by Attachment of Secondary Amines to a Reactive Ester Polymer

We report on the synthesis of polyacrylamides that were prepared by the reaction of a reactive ester polymer with a mesogen‐containing secondary amine and N‐methylpiperazine. As the polymers do not form hydrogen bonds near the amide groups, their mobility is significantly higher than that of poly(N‐monoalkylacrylamides). The initially nonionic polymer shows no liquid‐crystalline behavior in bulk and in mixture with ethylene glycol. This is due to the low polarity difference between the different side chains. The polarity difference can be increased by protonation or quarternization of the tertiary amino groups, and liquid‐crystalline behavior is observed. The self‐assembly multilayer build‐up of the polymer with quarternized amino groups, and an anionic polyelectrolyte proceeds regularly.