X-Ray Study of Some Liquid Crystal Homo- and Copolymers

The structure of liquid crystal homo- and copolymers based on chiral and achiral monomers was investigated by X-ray diffraction. All investigated polymers have tilted smectic phases with bilayer structures but their X-ray patterns show some features of intensity distribution in reflections related to both the orientation manners and the ratio of the chiral and achiral components. The correlation between the structure of comb-shaped molecules and the chirality of smectic phases is considered using experimental X-ray data, molecular simulation and diffraction calculations from structure models.