New Stimuli-Response Liquid Crystalline Polymer Architectures

We put together this entry to present a novel liquid crystalline brushlike block copolymer (LCBBC) architecture consisting of norbornenyl functionalized magnetically responsive liquid crystalline (LC) side chains in one block and brushlike semicrystalline PEG side chains in another block. At asymmetric LC block composition (73 wt%), LCBBCs show cylindrical PEG domains embedded in the major matrix having LC order. Molecular, thermal and microstructural characterizations are carried out to gain understanding of polymer structure, hierarchical self-assembly, and PEG crystallization. In order to get more insights on the role of PEG topology in different architectures, LCBBCs are compared with previously reported linear counterparts. LCBBC architecture presents a strong case to obtain magnetically aligned amorphous PEG domains in the LC major matrix for anisotropic ion transport (Li+) to develop electrochemical devices and batteries. Furthermore, norbornene backbones can be UV cross-linked in aligned states by using thiol-ene chemistry to attain robust platform with amorphous PEG domains for the ion transport to envision solid-state electrolyte membranes.