Hydroxy-functionalized liquid crystalline polyazomethines .2. Study of new central cores and synthesis of coordination polymers

A series of hydroxy-functionalized semi-flexible polyazomethines has been synthesized and characterized to investigate the effect of the structure of the diamine monomer on the thermal and mesogenic properties. The diamine monomer introduces structural modifications such as flexibility, lateral substitution, kinks or alteration of chain coaxiality. The mesomorphic phase of the mesogenic polymers was characterized as nematic in nature, but an evolution of the nematic into a smectic mesophase was observed for the polyazomethine derived from 3,3'-dimethoxybenzidine by annealing in the mesophase temperature range. Polyazomethines derived from aliphatic diamines were complexed with copper(II) to study the dependence of type of complexation on length of the aliphatic diamine.