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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Latticelike smectic liquid crystal phase in a rigid-rod helical polyisocyanide with mesogenic pendants
Takashi Kajitani1, Hisanari Onouchi, Shin-ichiro Sakurai
1Yashima Super-structured Helix Project, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japan. kajitani@riken.jp
Abstract:
We report a unique macromolecule consisting of a rodlike helical polyisocyanide backbone with a narrow molecular weight distribution and rigid mesogenic chiral pendants linked via a flexible spacer that exhibits lyotropic nematic and latticelike new smectic (lat-Sm) liquid crystal phases at different concentrations. The unprecedented lat-Sm phase is associated with the smectic ordering of both the stiff polymer backbone and the rigid-rod side groups. A detailed investigation of the films using X-ray scattering and atomic force microscopy revealed a novel tilted smectic layer structure of the polymer backbone aligned perpendicular to the smectic layer of the mesogenic pendants, which arrange in an antiparallel overlapping interdigitated manner.
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