Continuous and Discrete Dynamics of Heterogeneous Mesogenic Polymer Chain

Abstract

Two types of dynamic models–continuous and lattice–are considered describing a heterogeneous liquid-crystalline polymer chain built from mesogenes and spacers. The chain heterogeneity leads to enriching a set of possible motions of the chain. Each branch of the chain relaxation spectrum consisting of the isotropic phase of one acoustic and some optical branches is shown to be split into a longitudinal and transverse components. The magnitude of the splitting is found to depend on the scale of motions and the mechanism of the chain mobility. The dependence of the relaxation times on the degree of order is shown to be different for the chains with rigid and flexible spacers.

Key Words:

• Main-chain liquid crystalline polymers
• mean field approximation
• polymer dynamics
• lattice model
• relaxation spectrum.