Investigation of the nematic–isotropic transition of a liquid crystalline polymer and determination of molecular diffusion coefficients using gas chromatography

Inverse gas chromatography has been used to study the nematic–isotropic transition of a side chain liquid crystalline polymer (LCP). The mesogenic side groups are laterally attached to a polysiloxane backbone through a flexible spacer. The nematic–isotropic transition of this LCP coated onto a glass capillary column is detected by considering the variation with temperature of the retention volume and of the theoretical plate number for the several probes. The molecular diffusion coefficients, D, of naphthalene, fluorene, pyrene and o-terphenyl have been determined at different temperatures in the nematic phase of the LCP as well as in the isotropic melt. The values ranged between 10−14 and 10−12 m2 s−1 for the polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon probes tested.