Synthesis and mesomorphic structures of comb liquid-crystalline polymers with lipopeptidic side chains

Lipopeptidic macromonomers were synthesized from bi-functional lipids by two methods and transformed into comb copolymers with lipopeptidic side chains by radical polymerization of their acrylate, methacrylate, acrylamide or methacrylamide terminal group. X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry studies showed that comb copolymers exhibit both a thermotropic and a lyotropic behaviour and present smectic and nematic mesophases. The influence of the solvent concentration, the degree of polymerization of the peptidic chains and the nature of the main chains on the structural parameters of the smectic mesophases were established in the case of copolymers with liposarcosine side chains.