Self-organized Liquid-Crystalline Polyethers obtained by grafting tapered mesogenic groups onto Poly(epichlorohydrin): toward biomimetic ion channels

A set of high molecular weight new side-chain liquid-crystallyne polyethers was obtained by chemical modification of poly(epichlorodrin) with potassium 3,4,5-tris (dodecyloxy)benzoate.The degree of modification ranged from 48 to 70% depending on the reaction conditions, and the upper value was an apparent modification plateau. NMR characterization indicated that no side reactions of any kind occurred. All copolymers had a nematic columnar mesophase whose range of stability depended on the modification degree. X-ray diffraction experiments showed that the tapered groups were tilted with respect to the column axes. Also X-ray experiments and density measurements demonstrated that the number of disks per unit cell decreased as the modificatuion degree increased.