Abstract
We have proposed the segmented spacer chain, which consisted of an oligo(ethylene oxide) chain and an alkylene chain, as accelarator of the mobility of a mesogenic side-chain. In this work, the dielectric relaxation behavior of two kinds of polyacrylates having the segmented spacer was studied in order to reveal the effect of a segmented spacer on the mobility of a mesogenic side-chain. It was found that a segmented spacer enhanced the motion of a mesogenic group because these polymers showed a very fast relaxation compared with an ordinary side-chain type LCP having an alkylene spacer. The order parameter was evaluated by the measurement of the samples aligned by an applied voltage. In the case of P-3EO-C6, the order parameter equaled to almost 1 when 300V (1 kHz) was applied. Furthermore, it was suggested that selection of suitable lengths of oligo(ethylene oxide) and alkylene chains was necessary to acquire the wide range-temperature of a LC phase and to obtain a regularly aligned sample.
