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Curing of a rigid rod epoxy resin with an aliphatic diacid: an example of a lightly crosslinked liquid crystalline thermoset
Author(s) -
Giamberini Marta,
Amendola Eugenio,
Carfagna Cosimo
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.1995.030160201
Subject(s) - epoxy , mesogen , thermosetting polymer , materials science , mesophase , curing (chemistry) , liquid crystal , glass transition , molecule , composite material , phase (matter) , phase transition , isotropy , polymer chemistry , liquid crystalline , polymer , organic chemistry , chemistry , physics , optoelectronics , quantum mechanics
By reacting a rigid rod epoxy terminated molecule ( p ‐bis(2,3‐epoxypropoxy)‐α‐methylstilbene) with an aliphatic carboxylic acid (decanedioic acid), a lightly crosslinked liquid crystalline network is obtained. This network exhibits a smectic‐like phase. While the mesophasic structure resulted “frozen” by the crosslinks in the case of higly crosslinked liquid crystalline epoxy resins, in this case a reversible transition from the liquid crystalline to the isotropic phase is observed. Moreover, while curing the same rigid rod epoxy molecule with amines resulted in a thermoset with a nematic structure, in this case a more ordered mesophase can be obtained. Preliminary results show that it is possible to orient macroscopically the mesogenic chains by stretching thin films above the glass transition temperature ( T g ) and then quickly cooling down to the glassy state. This makes this material very attractive in the field of optical applications.