Block copolymers of narrow molecular‐weight distribution with a side‐chain liquid‐crystalline polymeric block as one component

Syntheses of block copolymers have been undertaken by photo‐polymerization of 6‐{4‐[4‐(butoxyphenoxy)carbonyl]phenoxy}hexyl methacrylate (1) using the living propagating chain end of poly(methyl methacrylate) as an initiating species. The latter was derived from photo‐polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of methyl(5,10,15,20‐tetraphenylporphinato)aluminium. The polymerization of 1 proceeded from the propagating end of poly(MMA) with high blocking efficiency to produce poly(MMA)‐block‐poly(1) with narrow molecular‐weight distribution. The length of the block chain could be controlled by varying the amounts of monomers. An endothermic peak of the block copolymer with higher mass of liquid‐crystalline chain was observed at almost the same temperature region as that of poly(1) on differential scanning calorimetric analyses, which suggests that the former has a structure with microphase separation.