OPTICAL ANISOTROPY OF LINEAR AND CYCLOLINEAR POLYORGANOSILOXANES

This paper discusses the conformational and optical properties of mole cules of alkylphenylsiloxane copolymers and of a number of ring-contai ning organosiloxanes. It establishes that a high content of phenyl sid e groups and their interaction in the linear molecules determine the f eatures of the molecular conformation: increased equilibrium rigidity and large optical anisotropy. These molecular characteristics correlat e well with the features of the polymer at the supermolecular level. ( C) 1997 The Optical Society of America.