Main-chain smectic liquid-crystalline polymers as randomly disordered systems.
We report a high-resolution X-ray lineshape study of main-chain smectic polymers. The results indicate that the layer ordering differs fundamentally from the algebraic decay typical for other smectic liquid-crystalline systems. The lineshapes are best described by broad squared Lorentzians indicating some form of short-range correlations. However, several higher harmonics are observed, which excludes simple liquid-like short-range order. This behaviour is tentatively attributed to a random field of defects associated with entangled hairpins in the main-chain polymer structure.
FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
A S
AS
Muresan
B I
BI
Ostrovskii
A
A
Sánchez-Ferrer
H
H
Finkelmann
W H
WH
de Jeu
D045424:Complex Mixtures / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D044367:Phase Transition; D012996:Solutions
D045424:Complex Mixtures; D012996:Solutions