Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 22, 2025

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Self-Organized Columnar Phase of Side-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymers: To Precisely Control the Number of Chains
Xiao-Qing Liu1, Jun Wang1, Shuang Yang1
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Self-organization of liquid crystalline (LC) polyacetylene derivatives (PAs) bearing hemiphasmid side-chains was investigated. The synthesized PAs can form smectic and columnar phases, depending on the constitutions of side chains. With a nanosegregation structure, the columnar phase of PAs takes a bundle of chains as its building block, of which the chain number is precisely determined by the volume fraction of the rigid component in PAs. The "precise multi-chain column" can be understood using a mean field theory, from which the deduced number of chains in the supramolecular column agrees well with the experimental result. This study reveals that the volume fraction of the rigid component plays a significant role in the self-organization of side-chain LC polymers, which is valuable for the rational design of macromolecules with precisely ordered structures.
Related Concept Videos
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Cationic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism
Polymer Classification: Architecture
Radical Chain-Growth Polymerization: Chain Branching
Anionic Chain-Growth Polymerization: Mechanism

