Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published August 14, 2012 | Published
Journal Article Open

Anomalous Concentration Effects on Phase Behavior and Nematic Order in Mixtures of Side-Chain Liquid Crystal Polymers and Low-Molecular-Weight Liquid Crystals

Abstract

We study the anomalous concentration effects in mixtures of side-chain liquid crystalline polymers (SCLCPs) and low-molecular-weight liquid crystals (LMWLCs) by modifying the theory of Brochard, Jouffroy, and Levinson (BJL) to include the effects of the polymer backbone. Our new theory considers both the interaction of the polymer backbone with the global nematic field, as well as the local steric constraints due to the grafting of the side groups onto the polymer backbone. In addition, we consider the enhancement in the coupling between the pedant mesogens and the LMWLC molecules as the SCLCP concentration increases. The resulting phase diagram and nematic order parameters are in qualitative agreement with experimental observations, but drastically different from the predictions by the BJL theory.

Additional Information

© 2012 American Chemical Society. Received: March 30, 2012; Revised: May 30, 2012; Published: July 18, 2012. We thank Rui Wang for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the NSF under Grant CHE-1040558, and B.Z. gratefully acknowledges support as an A-STAR fellow.

Attached Files

Published - ma300657s.pdf

Files

ma300657s.pdf
Files (2.2 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:76565d963836528340b43c6007ab77d6
2.2 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
September 14, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023