Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Monitoring the Effects of Illumination on the Structure of Conjugated Polymer Gels Using Neutron Scattering
Published on: December 21, 2017
Structure-property relationship of highly π-conjugated Schiff-base moiety in liquid crystal diepoxide polymerization
1Key Laboratory of Polymer Material for Electronics, Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 1122, Guangzhou 510650, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
A study of the structure-property relationship of the highly π-conjugated Schiff-base moiety in polymerization of a liquid crystal (LC) diepoxide oligomer (PBMBA) and mesophases stabilization has been investigated. We first proposed two exothermic peaks distinctly observed in nonisothermal polymerization curves for thermal copolymerization of PBMBA monomer with a diamine comonomer that corresponded to two different reactions, namely, an epoxy-amine polymerization and anionic polymerization. For PBMBA, note that an unexpected homopolymerization accompanying an appearance of enantiotropic mesophase transitions had taken place in the absence of any initiators, evidencing the possibility of an anionic mechanism yielding a homopolymer. A novel Schiff-base model compound (SBM) was synthesized and used to induce the polymerization of different types of epoxies. Based on the structure-property relationship, we considered a specific role of highly π-conjugated Schiff-base moieties in the anionic polymerization of PBMBA and hoped the mesophases could be stabilized using this mechanism, which may provide a key strategy for design of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) materials via a chemical process.
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Stability of Conjugated Dienes
A comparison of the enthalpies of hydrogenation of dienes reveals that conjugated dienes release less heat on hydrogenation, rendering them more stable than their nonconjugated analogs.
Stability of Substituted Cyclohexanes
The two chair conformations of cyclohexanes undergo rapid interconversion at room temperature. Both forms have identical energies and stabilities, each comprising equal amounts of the equilibrium mixture. Replacing a hydrogen atom with a functional group makes the two conformations energetically non-equivalent.
For example, in...
Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism
Polymer Classification: Architecture
Structure of Conjugated Dienes
Conjugated dienes are compounds characterized by the presence of alternating double and single bonds. In a conjugated system like 1,3-butadiene, the unhybridized 2p orbital on each carbon overlaps continuously, allowing the π electrons to be delocalized across the entire molecule. In contrast, this type of overlap does not occur in cumulated and isolated dienes, such as 2,3-pentadiene and 1,4-pentadiene, respectively. Instead, the π electrons remain localized between the double...

