The Morphology of Polyesters Formed from Smectic Liquid Crystal

• Published in: KOBUNSHI RONBUNSHU Vol. 44; no. 12; pp. 893 - 896
• Main Authors: TAKAHASHI, Toshisada, NAGATA, Hidefumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Society of Polymer Science, Japan 1987
• Subjects: Liquid Crystalline Polyester; Poly (hexamethylene p. p′-bibenzoate); Smectic Liquid Crystal; Solid-State Morphology; Spherulitic Structure; Stacked Lamellar Structure
• ISSN: 0386-2186; 1881-5685
• DOI: 10.1295/koron.44.893

The solid-state morphology of poly (hexamethylene p. p′-bibnzoate) (BB-6) and its dependence on the liquidcrystalline texture was studied by transmission electron microscopy. Thin films of BB-6 were prepared by casting a solution of the polymer in tetrabromoethane onto mica at 150°C. The temperature of the thin film was controlled on a hot-plate. The thin, liquid-crystalline films (210°C) which formed from the isotropic melt (260°C) were cooled gradually to room temperature. Long, plate-like structures composed of stacked lamellar crystals were formed in a thin film prepared from the thermotropic melt. Some of the long plates branched off or sometimes coalesced with neighboring ones to form a higher order, supermolecular structure. Spherulitic structures developed by the concentrical arrangement of lamellar crystals were also observed. These structures were taken to be derived from a smectic texture noted in the liquid-crystalline state of BB-6. An attempt was made to explain such a morphology in terms fo Dupan's cyclide by assuming that a hyperbola in the cyclide is parallel to the surface of the BB-6 film.