Thermal Properties and Orientational Behavior of Amphiphilic Liquid Crystalline Materials with Mesogenic Terminal Unit

Abstract

Amphiphilic liquid crystal materials with a mesogenic terminal unit were synthesized. Their thermal and orientational behavior were examined. Moreover, their lyotropic properties were estimated. A low-molecular-weight amphiphilic liquid crystal (ALC) showed no thermotropic mesophases. However, a lyotropic system obtained from ALC formed columnar and lamellar mesophases. The X-ray diffraction measurements and the polarizing microscope observation supported the formation of the columnar and lamellar mesophases. A polymethacrylate with ALC unit in the side-chain exhibited thermotropic smecctic A and C phases in the range from glass transition to isotropization points.