Observation of shear-induced nematic-isotropic transition in side-chain liquid crystal polymers

Flow-induced phase transitions are a fundamental (but poorly understood) property of non-equilibrium systems, and are also of practical importance for tuning the processing conditions for plastics, petroleum products, and other related materials(21). Recognition that polymers may exhibit liquid crystal properties has led to the discovery of the first tailored side-chain liquid crystal polymers (SCLCPs), which are formed by inserting a spacer between the main polymer chain and the lateral mesogen liquid-crystalline graftings(22). Subsequent research has sought to understand the nature of the coupling between the main polymer chain and the mesogens, with a view to obtaining better control of the properties of these tailored structures(22). We show here that the parallel or perpendicular orientation of the mesogens with respect to the main chain can be reversed by the application of an external field produced by a shear flow, demonstrating the existence of an isotropic nematic phase transition in SCLCPs. Such a transition, which was theoretically predicted(1,2) for low-molecular-weight liquid crystals but never observed, is shown to be a general property of SCLCPs too. We expect that these SCLCPs will prove to be good candidate systems for the experimental study of these non-equilibrium phenomena.