Advances in Polymer Science 126:  Biopolymers Liquid Crystalline Polymers Phase Emulsion Edited by Akihiro Abe (Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics). Springer:  New York. 1996. 226 pp. $149.00. ISBN 3-540-60484-7.

Not much more than a decade ago, the plastics industry viewed itself as a mature branch of the heavy chemical industry. Its raison d'être was the mass production of four or five main-line polymers, and profits were equated to tonnage output, plant efficiency, and clever downstream processing such as film blowing. The chemistry was essentially simple and the monomer, of course, cheap. There was, however, a spark of new thinking. A trend was developing toward the design and manufacture of more complex, more expensive polymers, with special properties which could command a special price. Such products would sell advanced scientific know-how, not just engineering expertise which could all too easily be exported to the major oil producers in the form of a polymer plant.Designing particular molecules to achieve desired properties is now a major theme of polymer producers. There is a move toward increasing the aromatic content of polymer backbones to achieve greater levels of chemical and thermal stability, while the development of new cross-linking systems remains as chemically intensive as ever. It is, however, the introduction of liquid crystalline polymers which, above all, has exploited the principles of molecular design, while at the same time challenging our understanding in a new area of polymer science.A polymer is “liquid crystalline” where the chains are sufficiently rigid to remain mutually aligned in the liquid phase although the perfect positional periodicity of a crystal is no longer present. In other words there is a long-range orientational order without long-range positional order (Figure 1). Structurally, therefore, the phase is intermediate between a crystal and a liquid leading to the use of the term mesophase. Where the liquid crystalline phase forms on melting the polymer, it is known as thermotropic, but where it is achieved by solvent addition it is called Inotropic. Increasing temperature, or solvent concentration, will eventually lead to the reversion of the liquid crystal phase to the normal isotropic polymer melt.

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Structure-property relations of liquid crystalline polymers

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100127013 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 45 ◽

pp. 460-463

Author(s):

Linda C. Sawyer

Keyword(s):

Solid State ◽

Liquid Crystalline ◽

Structural Model ◽

Crystalline Polymer ◽

Liquid Crystalline Polymers ◽

Mechanical Anisotropy ◽

Structure Property ◽

Preparation Methods ◽

Crystalline Polymers ◽

Extended Chain

Recent liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) research has sought to define structure-property relationships of these complex new materials. The two major types of LCPs, thermotropic and lyotropic LCPs, both exhibit effects of process history on the microstructure frozen into the solid state. The high mechanical anisotropy of the molecules favors formation of complex structures. Microscopy has been used to develop an understanding of these microstructures and to describe them in a fundamental structural model. Preparation methods used include microtomy, etching, fracture and sonication for study by optical and electron microscopy techniques, which have been described for polymers. The model accounts for the macrostructures and microstructures observed in highly oriented fibers and films.Rod-like liquid crystalline polymers produce oriented materials because they have extended chain structures in the solid state. These polymers have found application as high modulus fibers and films with unique properties due to the formation of ordered solutions (lyotropic) or melts (thermotropic) which transform easily into highly oriented, extended chain structures in the solid state.

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Factors affecting microstructural scale in liquid crystalline polymers

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100174230 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 220-221

Author(s):

Christine M. Dannels ◽

Christopher Viney

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystalline ◽

Liquid Crystalline Polymers ◽

Factors Affecting ◽

Crystalline Polymers ◽

Thermal Expansion Coefficients ◽

Low Thermal Expansion ◽

Lower Viscosity ◽

Fine Microstructure ◽

Planar Orientation ◽

Strength And Stiffness

Processing polymers from the liquid crystalline state offers several advantages compared to processing from conventional fluids. These include: better axial strength and stiffness in fibers, better planar orientation in films, lower viscosity during processing, low solidification shrinkage of injection moldings (thermotropic processing), and low thermal expansion coefficients. However, the compressive strength of the solid is disappointing. Previous efforts to improve this property have focussed on synthesizing stiffer molecules. The effect of microstructural scale has been overlooked, even though its relevance to the mechanical and physical properties of more traditional materials is well established. By analogy with the behavior of metals and ceramics, one would expect a fine microstructure (i..e. a high density of orientational defects) to be desirable.Also, because much microstructural detail in liquid crystalline polymers occurs on a scale close to the wavelength of light, light is scattered on passing through these materials.

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