| Abstract: | Two series of thermotropic polymethacrylate (PM) samples with pendant cellobiose residues and an alkyl spacer (number of carbon atoms n = 4 and 10) were synthesized, and their mesomorphic properties were investigated to elucidate the function of acylated cellobiose moieties as discotic mesogens by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarization microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The PM-4 samples with a short spacer (n = 4) showed two kinds of mesophases in a wide temperature region up to the degradation temperature of the sample, i. e., about 230°C, whereas the PM-10 samples with a long spacer (n = 10) showed a single mesophase between 45 and 135°C. X-Ray diffraction data suggested that both the mesophases formed by PM-4 and PM-10 belong to a kind of discotic columnar phases in which the side chain mesogens form the discotic columns around the polymer backbone. |
