A. Âlimoglu, A. Ledwith, P. Gemmell
Sep 1, 1984
Citations
0
Influential Citations
17
Citations
Journal
Polymer
Abstract
Abstract 4-Hydroxy-4′-cyanobiphenyl and 4-hydroxy-4′-n-pentylbiphenyl have been converted into vinyl monomers by reactions with acryloyl and methacryloyl chlorides. All four new monomers were homopolymerized free radically to yield acrylic polymers which melt with decomposition at temperatures in excess of 200°C. Powder X-ray diffraction studies clearly show that the polymers are crystalline and suggest that the polymer backbones lie in essentially parallel planes contained within perpendicular smectic-like layers of the directly attached and rigid anisotropic side chain substituents. It is noteworthy that side chain ordering is sufficiently strong to overcome the normal conformational barriers associated with main chain methyl groups in the methacrylate polymers. Previous examples of this type of ordering have been restricted to acrylate polymers.