Main-chain biodegradable liquid crystal based on cholesteryl end-capped polycarbonate copolymers

作者：Xu, Xiaoxu; Yang, Liqun^*; Chen, Guixiang; Lu, Yanhua; Hu, Jianshe; Chen, Qifan^*

来源：Liquid Crystals, 2017, 44(6): 925-932.

DOI：10.1080/02678292.2016.1254826

• Biodegradable liquid crystal
• trimethylene carbonate
• epsilon-caprolactone
• cholesteryl
• phase behaviour

Main-chain biodegradable liquid crystal (LC) based on cholesteryl end-capped polycarbonate copolymers was investigated. The novel LC was synthesised through ring-opening copolymerisation of trimethylene carbonate with epsilon-caprolactone (CL) initiated by cholesterol, without adding any catalyst. The chemical structure of the resulting polymers was confirmed by H-1 NMR. The liquid crystalline properties were validated by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry and polarising optical microscopy. The results showed that the synthesised polycarbonate copolymers Chol-(TMCL)x+y exhibited liquid crystallinity in particular temperature ranges because of the incorporation of the cholesterol moieties. Furthermore, the effect of CL content on the mesomorphism properties of Chol-(TMCL)(x+y) was also investigated; the higher the CL content, the lower the mesomorphism properties. It might be attributed to the hindered orientation of LC caused by the crystallinity of the poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) segments in the polymer chain. @@@ [GRAPHICS] @@@ .

• 出版日期2017
• 单位辽东学院; 东北大学; 辽宁省计划生育科学研究院