Orientational behaviour of a liquid crystalline side chain polymer in applied electric and magnetic fields as detected by NMR

Abstract

The molecular orientational order of a side chain thermotropic nematic polymer has been measured by proton NMR. The alignment of the side chains is reflected in the splitting of the NMR signal into a doublet. Simultaneous orientational effects of magnetic and electric fields on the mesogenic groups were studied in magnetically preoriented layers. Temperature, twist angle and thickness dependences of the spectra were measured. The order parameter S and the parameter of orientational order S' of the samples were estimated.