Abstract
A new class of liquid-crystalline (LC) homopolymers of poly{11-[4-(3-ethoxycarbonyl-coumarin-7-oxy)-carbonylphenyloxy] -undecyl methacrylate} containing a coumarin moiety as a photocrosslinkable unit with various polymerization degrees and their LC-coil diblock and LC-coil-LC triblock copolymers with polystyrene as the coil segment was synthesized with the atom transfer radical polymerization method. All the homopolymers and block copolymers synthesized here exhibited narrow polydispersities, indicating well-controlled living polymerization. Differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, and wide-angle X-ray diffraction confirmed that all the homopolymers and block copolymers exhibit a monolayer smectic A phase. Coumarin moieties in the polymers can be photodimerized under λ > 300 nm light irradiation to yield crosslinked network structures, which improve the thermal stability of a polymer nanostructure because of microphase separation.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2197-2206 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Polymer Science, Part A: Polymer Chemistry |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 14 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 6 2003 |
Keywords
- Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP)
- Block copolymers
- Coumarin
- Liquid crystal
- Phase separation
- Photocrosslinking
- Synthesis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Polymers and Plastics
- Organic Chemistry
- Materials Chemistry