Unimodal nematic liquid crystalline random copolymers designed for accepting chiral dopants

The miscibility of chiral molecules to unimodal sidechain nematic liquid crystalline (LC) polymers was studied to generate chiral nematic phases. Chiral dopants, a phenyl benzoate derivative S-811 and an isosorbide dibenzoate derivative ISO-(6OBA)₂ were miscible to the nematic LC polymer PMA(4OPB) tethering phenyl benzoate moieties as sidechain mesogens by preparing mixtures in solutions rather than directly melting the powders together. Nematic LC random copolymers containing non-LC side chains were designed to promote the interaction between mesogens and chiral molecules. The introduction of hexyl chains as side chains randomly into nematic LC polymers improved the miscibility of chiral molecules of an isosorbide dibenzoate derivative with hexyl tails. The hexyl chains of the polymer provided spaces for the chiral molecules and caused alkylalkyl interactions. We demonstrated that the randomly introduced hexyl chains promoted the interaction of chiral molecules with LC mesogens to generate chiral nematic phases.