Photoinitiated polymerization of a semifluorinated liquid crystalline monomer exhibiting a reduced rate in the smectic phase

The photoinitiated polymerization of a sterically hindered semi-fluorinated monomer, which is characterized by a hindered radical chain propagation site, was followed both in an isotropic and a highly ordered smectic liquid crystalline phase. The polymerization rate is slower in the smectic phase than in the isotropic phase, presumably a result of a decrease in both the propagation and termination rate constants. The decrease in the propagation rate results in a very slow persistent increase in polymer molecular weight after the initiating light source is removed. Polymerization from the smectic phase of the monomer proceeds in a non-equilibrium matrix.