TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENCE OF THE MAXWELL EFF ECT IN SOLUTION OF A COMB-LIKE POLYMER WITH A LATERAL STRUCTURE OF MACROMOLECULES

A comblike polymer containing three-ring mesogenic groups attached lat erally (in the middle part) via 11-carbon spacers to the methacrylic c ore was investigated. The effect of temperature on the optical Maxwell constant, the optical anisotropy per unit chain length, and the orien tational ordering of mesogenic groups was studied. An increase in the temperature from 13 to 45 degrees C produces a two-fold decrease in th e characteristic birefringence appearing in the flow of a polymer solu tion in chloroform. At the same time, the optical shear coefficient re mains unchanged, showing that the optical anisotropy of the statistica l segment and the unit chain length are insensitive to the temperature variations. The parameter of order in the side group arrangement is d etermined. In the chloroform solutions, the order parameter is several times that in tetrachloromethane and does not vary with the temperatu re.