Liquid crystalline polybutadiene diols with chiral thiol side-chain units

New chiral thiols with three aromatic rings and the azo group in the molecular core have been synthesized and grafted on polybutadiene diols backbone. The resulting diols possess the OH end groups promising for preparation of the liquid crystal ordered networks. The mesomorphic and physical properties of the synthesized thiols and resulting diols have been studied by polarizing optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray studies and dielectric spectroscopy. The resulting side-chain diols show the liquid crystalline behaviour. The effects of side-chain structure of the thiols and density of grafting on the polybutadiene diols has been studied and discussed.