COMPARISON OF THERMAL AND CHOLESTERIC MESOPHASE PROPERTIES AMONG THE 3 KIND OF HYDROXYPROPYLCELLULOSE (HPC) DERIVATIVES

Three kind series of (2-hydroxypropyl)cellulose (HPC) derivatives, the esters (ES), the ethers (ET) and the esters containing fluorocarbon c omponents (FES) were prepared, and the thermal and cholesteric mesopha se properties were compared among them. The optical pitch of ES increa sed with decreasing the degree of substitution (DS). Contrary to ES, t he optical pitch of ET decreased with decreasing DS. The cholesteric-i sotropic transition temperature of FES exhibited the even-odd oscillat ion according to the number of carbons in substituent. The reverse opt ical pitches of ET and FES were larger than that of ES, respectively, at the same temperature and at the same number of carbons in substitue nt.