title: Latticelike smectic liquid crystal phase in a rigid-rod helical polyisocyanide with mesogenic pendants.
abstract: We report a unique macromolecule consisting of a rodlike helical polyisocyanide backbone with a narrow molecular weight distribution and rigid mesogenic chiral pendants linked via a flexible spacer that exhibits lyotropic nematic and latticelike new smectic (lat-Sm) liquid crystal phases at different concentrations. The unprecedented lat-Sm phase is associated with the smectic ordering of both the stiff polymer backbone and the rigid-rod side groups. A detailed investigation of the films using X-ray scattering and atomic force microscopy revealed a novel tilted smectic layer structure of the polymer backbone aligned perpendicular to the smectic layer of the mesogenic pendants, which arrange in an antiparallel overlapping interdigitated manner.
authors.affiliation: Yashima Super-structured Helix Project, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japan. kajitani@riken.jp
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kajitani
authors.forename: Hisanari
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Onouchi
authors.forename: Shin-ichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Kanji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Kento
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okoshi
authors.forename: Kiyotaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Onitsuka
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yashima