Novel ferroelectric liquid crystalline (FLC) polyacetylenes, namely, “side-end-fixed” type of PAM6OTPhOR∗ and “side-on-fixed” type of PAM3OCO(TPh)OR∗ were designed and synthesized in high yields (89.3 and 62.0%), respectively, where the terphenyl was linked at the different positions. The thermal stability of PAM3OCO(TPh)OR∗ is better than PAM6OTPhOR∗ owing to the “jacket effect” from terphenyl pendant linked at the waist position well protecting the main chain from the perturbations. The PAM3OCO(TPh)OR∗ shows enantiotropic chiral smectic A phase (SmA∗), but it is noteworthy that the PAM6OTPhOR∗ exhibits enantiotropic chiral smectic C phase (SmC∗) responsible for ferroelectric liquid crystallinity. Compared to “side-end-fixed” type of polymer, the “side-on-fixed” type shows better light emitting property, ascribed to the mesogen linked at the waist position has stronger tendency to enhance the main-chain coplanarity. Furthermore, the circular dichroism (CD) spectra demonstrate that the asymmetric force field generated by the chiral center affects the secondary structure of PAM3OCO(TPh)OR∗.
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