TOPICS IN THE EVOLUTION OF LIQUID-CRYSTAL POLYMERS

The relevance of scientific and technical research on liquid crystal polymers is examined and compared to the overall evolution of the general field of liquid crystals. It is shown that polymers have played a progressively increasing role during the last 25 years, and although they only became a quantitatively significant subject not much more than 10 years ago, their contribution to problems and materials now represents a considerable share. Three specific topics concerning rigid rod polymers, liquid crystalline networks and polymeric metallo-mesogens are examined and some related problems highlighted. In particular, some examples showing tractable thermotropic mesomorphic systems can be obtained with linear rigid homopolymers are examined; the phase behaviour of networks derived from segmented chain mesogenic polymers is discussed; inclusion of metallo-organic groups into polymeric mesogens is reviewed.