Liquid crystalline epoxy thermosets based on dihydroxymethylstilbene: Synthesis and characterization

This article describes the synthesis and characterization of a new series of liquid crystalline thermosets. Nematic epoxy-terminated oligoethers based on dihydroxy-α-methylstilbene were synthesized for this study. These prepolymers were crosslinked within the nematic mesophase using methylenedianiline. Depending upon the molecular weight and polydispersity of the oligoether, the crosslinking reaction resulted in networks with either a smectic or nematic molecular organization in contrast to the simple nematic phase of the oligoether. The formation of a smectic-like structure on curing was found to be related to the breadth of the prepolymer molecular weight. In those networks with a low crosslink density a clearing transition could be observed, whereas in the more highly crosslinked networks the molecular organization was frozen in until decomposition. The glass transition temperature of these LC networks rose as the crosslink density was increased, ranging from 35 to 152°C. In agreement with theory, the clearing transition of the networks was found to be dependent on the phase state during curing © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.