Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.258, 15-26, 1995
Dielectric Relaxations of a Side-Chain Liquid-Crystal Homopolymer and Copolymer
The dielectric loss spectrum of a side chain liquid crystal polymer (SCLCP) has been measured from 10 Hz to 100 kHz in the smectic phase. Three liquid crystalline siloxane polymers are examined, a homopolymer and two random copolymers, all of which contain a chiral smectic mesogen and an eleven-methylene spacer in the side chain. Two dielectric relaxations have been observed, the high-frequency alpha and low-frequency delta processes. The effect of the copolymer morphology in these SCLCPs is to increase the dielectric relaxation strength of the delta process relative to the cc process and to cause increased overlap between the two peaks. These two observations suggest that the copolymer structure aids large scale reorientations in the delta process because of increased cooperativity with the backbone.