Critical behavior of the bend elastic constant of a liquid crystalline comblike polymer near the nematic-smectic A phase transition

摘要

The temperature dependence of the bending elastic constant of a combined comblike side- and main-chain liquid crystalline polymer near the nematic-smectic A phase transition was investigated. The bending constant K_3 diverges at the transition, but the critical exponent v=1.4 does not agree with the theoretical prediction. The large value of the exponent v may be explained by the polydispersity of the polymer investigated.