Liquid crystal thermosets. A new class of high-performance materials

The evolution of the liquid crystalline order during the cure of a reactive thermotropic liquid crystal (LC) is studied using two phenylethynyl-terminated biphenol and naphthalenediol model compounds. The nematic order in the melt of both model compounds at elevated temperature is monitored with X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and C-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹³C NMR). XRD shows a cybotactic nematic phase; the global nematic order decreases with curing and eventually the resulting cross-linked liquid crystal thermoset (LCT) exhibits an isotropic morphology. The NMR method tracks the phenylethynyl end-group and yields data about the cure kinetics of this class of reactive LC mesogens. The observations may be used to make inferences about the cure behaviour and morphology of phenylethynyl-terminated random copolyester macromonomers.