Biomacrocyclic side-chain liquid crystalline polymers bearing cholesterol mesogens: facile synthesis and topological effect study

Feng Zhou; Yiwen Li; Ganquan Jiang; Zhengbiao Zhang; Yingfeng Tu; Xiaofang Chen; Nianchen Zhou; Xiulin Zhu

doi:10.1039/C5PY01003A

Biomacrocyclic side-chain liquid crystalline polymers bearing cholesterol mesogens: facile synthesis and topological effect study†

Feng Zhou,^a Yiwen Li,^b Ganquan Jiang,^a Zhengbiao Zhang,^a Yingfeng Tu,^a Xiaofang Chen,*^a Nianchen Zhou*^a and Xiulin Zhu*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
E-mail: xlzhu@suda.edu.cn, nczhou@suda.edu.cn, xfchen75@suda.edu.cn

^b Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

Abstract

Herein we describe the rational design and facile synthesis of biomacrocyclic side-chain liquid crystalline polymers bearing cholesterol mesogens with three different length methylene spacers (m = 2, 6, 11) via the combination of reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization with Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) “click” chemistry. The successful cyclization was confirmed by comprehensive characterization including size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), triple detection size-exclusion chromatography (TD-SEC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and ¹H NMR spectra. Subsequently, the liquid crystalline (LC) phase behaviors of the linear and cyclic polymers were investigated systematically. Both linear and cyclic polymers form the smectic phase and exhibit a similar layer periodicity. However, the cyclic ones exhibit a slightly lower mesophase transition temperature, enthalpy, entropy and smaller textures compared with their linear counterparts. Meanwhile, the smectic C (SmC) phase is preferable in cyclic polymers with a long methylene spacer (m = 11) compared with that in the linear one.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5PY01003A
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 30 Jun 2015
Accepted: 11 Aug 2015
First published: 13 Aug 2015

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Polym. Chem., 2015,6, 6885-6893

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Biomacrocyclic side-chain liquid crystalline polymers bearing cholesterol mesogens: facile synthesis and topological effect study

F. Zhou, Y. Li, G. Jiang, Z. Zhang, Y. Tu, X. Chen, N. Zhou and X. Zhu, Polym. Chem., 2015, 6, 6885 DOI: 10.1039/C5PY01003A

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Polymer Chemistry

Biomacrocyclic side-chain liquid crystalline polymers bearing cholesterol mesogens: facile synthesis and topological effect study†

Abstract

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Biomacrocyclic side-chain liquid crystalline polymers bearing cholesterol mesogens: facile synthesis and topological effect study

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