Kinetically controlled phase transitions in liquid-crystalline polymers. II. Isothermal degradation of ferroelectric switching in a chiral side-chain polysiloxane during slow smectic B phase formation

The kinetics of phase transformations in a chiral siloxane polymer has been studied with an Avrami analysis of the differential scanning calorimetry data. Ferroelectric switching has been measured as a function of the driving voltage and temperature. The evolution of the switching at a constant temperature has been studied within the temperature range of the kinetically governed smectic C*/smectic B phase transition. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 1779–1784, 2005