Liq. Cryst.

2018, 45,

In this work, novel nematic monomer (M-1), chiral monomer (M-2) and crosslinker (CL) have been synthesised to form a series of side chain chiral liquid crystalline elastomers (ChLCEs) LCE1-LCE7 by graft copolymerisation with poly(methylhydrogeno)siloxane backbone. M-1 and M-2 were both dimer type with great length, and the chiral 2-octyl terminal group was seldom used in liquid crystal elastomer system. The chemical structures, thermal stability and LC phase behaviours of monomers, crosslinker and ChLCEs were examined by different experimental techniques. The helical structure of combining the chiral and achiral liquid crystalline side chains endowed the obtained ChLCEs with chiral nematic liquid crystalline properties. By changing the dosages of the crosslinker, the mesomorphic properties of ChLCEs could be adjusted. The mesophase-isotropic phase range of the ChLCEs were slightly broadened with increasing addition of CL according to the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The synthesised ChLCEs exhibited excellent thermal stability from thermal analysis (TG) results. The effective crosslink density ((c)) of the ChLCEs was characterised by swelling experiments showing the molecular weight between the crosslinking points decreasing with the increase of the CL. The FT-IR imaging system indicates the functional groups of all the ChLCEs are well distributed. [GRAPHICS] .