Effect of the different rigidity of the chiral crosslinker on phase behaviors of side-chain chiral liquid crystalline elastomers

In the present work, the phase behaviors of two series of side-chain liquid crystalline elastomers (PI and PII series) derived from the same nematic liquid crystalline monomer and the different rigidity of chiral bisolefinic crosslinking units have been compared and studied extensively, and the effect of the different rigidity of crosslinker on the phase behavior of elastomers has been discussed. The chemical structure of the monomers and polymers obtained were confirmed by FTIR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The phase behaviors were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy measurement, thermogravimetric analyses, and X-ray diffraction measurement. The two series of elastomers showed smectic or cholesteric phases. When the amount of different crosslinking units was less than 15 mol %, both of the elastomers displayed elasticity, reversible phase transition with wide mesophase temperature ranges, and high thermal stability. It is shown that the isotropization temperature values of PII series are higher than those of PI series, and the glass transition temperature values of PII series varied smoothly and that of PI series changed smoothly first and then abruptly with increasing the contents of crosslinkers with different rigidity. In addition, PI series showed an interesting change in LC texture near clearing point, but PII series did not. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008