ON THE PECULIAR DYNAMIC-MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF AN AZOBENZENE-CONTAINING MESOMORPHIC POLYACRYLATE

The phenomenology of the a relaxation process in an amorphous and crys tallized specimen of a side-chain LC polyacrylate, based on the azoben zene mesogenic unit, was investigated by thermal and dynamic-mechanica l methods. A frequency and temperature analysis was performed. The rel axation behavior of the amorphous sample was described by the WLF equa tion. The alpha process of the semicrystalline sample was structured i nto two components alpha' and alpha '', both following Arrhenius type activation law. This peculiar behavior has been tentatively related to the multidomain structure of the semicrystalline sample.