CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

A series of main chain discotic liquid crystal polymers, synthesized following anew approach based on the incorporation of triphenylene units in both comonomers,show ordered columnar mesophases in a very wide thermal range,including room temperature. The introduction of branching points based onthe same kind of triphenylene units increases their thermal range and givesrise to glassy low-temperature phases. Room temperature extrusion of thesepolymers yields fibers with molecules oriented perpendicular to the mechanicalstress, and an orientational order parameter close to 0.5, which slightlyincreases for branched polymers.