Synthesis of liquid crystalline polyaniline derivatives and their orientational behaviors under magnetic field

We have synthesized novel liquid crystalline (LC) polyaniline derivative by introducing LC group into the ortho-position of the phenylene ring in the main chain. The polymers in the mesophase, irrespective of oxidized and neutral forms, exhibited the deeply purple colored fan-shaped textures under polarizing optical microscope, by which the LC phase was assigned to a smectic one. Subsequently, the polymer was macroscopically aligned under LC phase by using magnetic filed of 10 T. The formation of mono-domain LC structure was confirmed through the observation of perfectly aligned optical texture.