Ie. Serhatli et al., SYNTHESIS OF HYBRID LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE BLOCK-COPOLYMERS BY COMBINATION OF CATIONIC OR PROMOTED CATIONIC AND FREE-RADICAL POLYMERIZATIONS, Polymer bulletin, 34(5-6), 1995, pp. 539-546
The synthesis of two new classes of liquid crystalline block copolymer
s (1-5) by a two-step combination of cationic and free-radical polymer
izations is described. An azomacroinitiator was prepared first by cati
onic polymerization of tetrahydrofuran or promoted cationic polymeriza
tion of cyclohexene oxide, which was then used to initiate the free-ra
dical polymerization of an acrylate monomer containing a variously sub
stituted biphenyl mesogenic group. The semicrystalline and liquid crys
talline blocks were essentially microphase-separated and gave rise to
different thermotropic mesophases.