EFFECTS OF NONMESOGENIC COMONOMERS ON THE PHASE-BEHAVIOR, THE STRUCTURE AND THE MISCIBILITY OF SIDE-CHAIN LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE POLYMERS

The phase behaviour of methacrylic side chain liquid-crystalline (LC) copolymers, with a spacer-decoupled mesogen in one comonomer and a met hyl (MMA) or stearyl(a)) (SMA) substituent in the other comonomer, was studied. The mesogen is of the phenyl benzoate type and has a methoxy end group. The LC homopolymer (PLC) has a smectic and a nematic phase . The comonomers MMA and SMA destabilize the LC phase. This effect is compared to the destabilisation caused by end groups in oligomers of P LC. The SMA side chains crystallize so that the SMA copolymers assume a smectic-crystalline bilayer structure. Finally, it is shown that the order of the copolymers affects their mutual miscibility.