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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Synthesis of Programmable Main-chain Liquid-crystalline Elastomers Using a Two-stage Thiol-acrylate Reaction
Published on: January 19, 2016
A main-chain de vries smectic liquid crystal polymer prepared by hoveyda-grubbs catalyst initiated acyclic diene
David M Walba1, Hong Yang, Patrick Keller
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, 215 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0215, USA. walba@colorado.edu.
Abstract:
A main-chain liquid crystalline polymer has been obtained by applying a Hoveyda-Grubbs 2nd generation catalyst in acyclic diene metathesis polymerization (ADMET) of a monomer containing on one end a terminal dimethylvinylsilyl group and at the other end a terminal CC double bond. This material showed an interesting Iso-de Vries SmA* - SmC* - Glass phase transition with a very small layer shrinkage on progressing from the SmA* phase into the SmC* phase. Will this material present a helical structure along the fiber axis in the SmC* temperature range? Several physical characterization methods including XRD, optical observation, and microtome technique have been used to investigate the internal structural organization in this liquid crystalline fiber.
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