Design and self-assembling behaviour of comb-like stereoregular cyclolinear methylsiloxane copolymers with chiral lactate groups

Irina Petrovaa, Aleksej Gajbc, Damian Pochiechad http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7734-3181, Maksim Shcherbinae, Nataliya N. Makarovaa & Alexej Bubnov*f http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6337-2210a A.N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova, Russian Federationb Gymnázium Christiana Dopplera, Prague, Czech Republicc Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republicd Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Polande N.S.Enikolopov Institute of Synthetic Polymer Materials, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federationf Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicCONTACT Alexej Bubnov bubnov@fzu.czABSTRACTSeveral new comb-like stereoregular cyclolinear methylsiloxane copolymers exhibiting the self-assembling behaviour have been designed and studied. For the resulting macromolecular materials, the chiral mesogenic unit, namely (S)-(–)-4-[1-ethoxycarbonyl)ethoxycarbonyl]phenyl-4′-[11-tetramethyldisiloxyl)-undecenyloxy)-biphenyl-4′-carboxylate, has been used as a side group to assure the mesomorphic behaviour. The mesomorphic and structural properties were studied by the polarising optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and small-/wide-angle X-ray diffraction techniques. The designed copolymers form the orthogonal smectic A* and the tilted smectic C* phases over relatively broad temperature range, down to room temperatures. The obtained results are discussed in order to contribute to better understanding of the molecular architecture–nano-organisation relationship for a specific type of macromolecular system based on the lactic acid derivatives used as a flexible side groups.