|
|
Oriented copolymers with liquid crystalline building blocks
Horodecka, Sabina Jolanta ; Strachota, Adam (advisor) ; Uchman, Mariusz Marcin (referee) ; Sedláková, Zdeňka (referee)
Several series of reversible physical networks based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chains and liquid crystalline (LC) structural units were synthesized and studied, which belong to three different architecture types: (1) LC-grafted PDMS (with LC quartets at the grafting sites), (2) LC-end-capped linear PDMS, (3) and linear 'infinite' LC-PDMS copolymers (with alternating LC and PDMS segments). PDMS spacers of different lengths of were tested, as well as 6 different polyaromatic mesogens of azo type and azo-free type. Hydrosilylation coupling of vinyl-functional mesogens, obtained as part of an international cooperation, with commercial Si-H-functional PDMS was employed to synthesize all the studied materials. The copolymers were physically crosslinked by the nano-aggregation of the LC units contained in their macromolecules. The thermotropic properties of the LC-nano-aggregates lent interesting physical properties to the whole material, making some of the copolymers attractive as potential smart materials. The PDMS spacer segments were selected for the sake of their extreme flexibility, which should provide elastic properties to the physically crosslinked copolymers, and also because of their (desired) incompatibility with the mesogens. This latter effect was highly helpful for achieving the...
|
guest ::
