Novel combined liquid crystalline (LC) polymers based on ethyl cellulose (EC) were synthesized by N,N′-dicylcohexylcarbodiimide coupling, and the effect of flexible spacer length on the mesophase structure was investigated. The results showed that the mesophase structures of polymers consisted of a large-scale ordered lamellar structure constructed by EC backbone and a relatively small-scale ordered structure formed by azobenzene side chains. All the polymers form the similar lamellar structure at large scale; however, the small-scale ordered structure becomes disordered relatively, that is, from crystal (m=2) to smectic B (m=4) to smectic A (m=6) at lower temperature.
- Tianhui Hu
- Jie Yi
- Hailiang Zhang
