Liquid Crystalline Polymers

In the last few years incorporations of a side-group liquid crystalline (LC) polymer with another non-LC polymer into various forms of LC AB-type block copolymers have made it possible to access a new wide range of structure and property combinations. Comparatively, very little attention has been devoted to LC AB-type graft copolymers. LC block and graft copolymers are especially interesting because of the appearance of two ordering principles at the same time. In fact, copolymers consisting of amorphous polymer blocks and side-group LC polymer blocks present a structurally rich environment in which morphology can affect the LC alignment and phase behavior. The microphase separation of the different blocks may lead to diverse morphologies in these types of polymers. In addition, the orientation ability of mesogens with mechanical and electric fields combined with the mechanical properties of block copolymers may lead to applications such as in electro-optic free standing thin films, mechano-optic materials, and piezoelectric elastomers.