抄録
It has been predicted that hard-rod particles form nematic, smectic and columnar liquid crystal phase with only excluded volume effect taken into consideration. We newly found that hard-rod helical polymers with narrow molecular weight distribution form these three phases in its thermotropic liquid crystal state. The layer spacing of the smectic phase evaluated by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is almost identical to the molecular length calculated with number average molecular weight (Mn). It indicates that the system takes the smectic A structure in which molecules orient perpendicularly to the layer. It also exhibits nematic-smectic-columnar phase transition sequence which coincides with theoretical prediction.
