Ferrocene-Containing Thermotropic Side-Chain Liquid-Crystalline Polymethacrylate from a Mesomorphic Trisubstituted Ferrocene Monomer

The synthesis and mesomorphic properties of a methacrylate-containing ferrocene monomer bearing two flexible chains at the 1,1‘-positions and the corresponding side-chain homopolymer are described. Both polymer and monomer showed enantiotropic smectic C and smectic A phases. The liquid-crystalline phases were fully characterized by means of X-ray diffraction experiments. Dilatometric measurements pointed to a head-to-tail molecular arrangement of the monomeric units within the smectic A phase. The results described in this report confirm that ferrocene-containing thermotropic side-chain liquid-crystalline polymethacrylates respresent a valuable family of metallomesogenic polymers.