The first example of a liquid crystalline side-chain polymer with bent-core mesogenic units: ferroelectric switching and spontaneous achiral symmetry breaking in an achiral polymer

Chem Commun (Camb). 2005 Feb 21:(7):871-3. doi: 10.1039/b413643h. Epub 2005 Jan 5.

Abstract

A dimethylsiloxane diluted polysiloxane side chain co-polymer with non-chiral banana-shaped mesogenic units shows an optically isotropic ferroelectric switching polar smectic C phase (SmCPF) consisting of a conglomerate of homogeneously chiral domains with opposite handedness.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Crystallization
  • Molecular Structure
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Powder Diffraction
  • Siloxanes / chemistry*
  • Time Factors

Substances

  • Polymers
  • Siloxanes