A comparative study of supermolecular self-organization of polymethacrylate containing bulky side substituents and its monomer precursor

In oriented fibers of polymethacrylate containing bulky side substituents and of the corresponding monomer precursor, supermolecular columnar structures were studied by X-ray analysis. Similar wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering patterns suggested that the internal structure of the ordered columnar phase is primarily controlled by the arrangement of rigid mesogenic side groups. Introduction of the polymer chain leads, on the one hand, to a slight increase in the diameter of cylinders and, on the other hand, to a marked broadening of the temperature interval in which the disordered columnar phase exists. For a model cylindrical structure, two-dimensional X-ray scattering pattern was calculated, and the results proved that the wide-angle X-ray reflections were independent of three-dimensional crystallinity but were the maxima of Fourier transform of an isolated cylinder.