Behavior of Liquid Crystalline Side Chain Polymers in an Electric Field

Abstract

Abstract Liquid crystalline-side chain copolymers are compared with analogous liquid crystalline mixtures. The polymers can be homogenously oriented by surface effects such as low molar mass mixtures. These substances were investigated using an electric field to study their regularities. The constitution and the concentration of polar guest molecules in copolymers and analogous mixtures were varied. The threshold voltages of polymer and monomer systems altered in the same way and are of the same order of magnitude. If the spacer length of the liquid crystalline-side chain polymer was shortened, an increase in the threshold voltage was observed. Investigations of the threshold voltage indicate that the behavior of the mesogenic side groups of the polymers is similar to that of low molar mass liquid crystals if the spacer is sufficiently long. Optical response times were much greater than those for conventional liquid crystals, due to the high viscosities of the polymers.