Effects of Monomer Structure on Their Organization and Polymerization in a Smectic Liquid Crystal

✍ Scribed by Guymon, C. A.

• Book ID: 121157244
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 394 KB
• Volume: 275
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• DOI: 10.1126/science.275.5296.57

✦ Synopsis

Photopolymerizable diacrylate monomers dissolved in fluid-layer smectic A and smectic C liquid crystal (LC) hosts exhibited significant spatial segregation and orientation that depend strongly on monomer structure. Small, flexible monomers such as 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) oriented parallel to the smectic layers and intercalated, whereas rod-shaped mesogen-like monomers such as 1,4-di-(4-(6-acryloyloxyhexyloxy)benzoyloxy)-2-methylbenzene (C6M) oriented normal to the smectic layers and collected within them. Such spatial segregation caused by the smectic layering dramatically enhanced photopolymerization rates; for HDDA, termination rates were reduced, whereas for C6M, both the termination and propagation rates were increased. These polymerization precursor structures suggest novel materials-design paradigms for gel LCs and nanophase-separated polymer systems.