Comb-Shaped Polymers and Liquid Crystals: Specialty Polymers

1 Structure of Comb-Shaped Polymers.- 1.1. Early Studies.- 1.2. The Amorphous State.- 1.3. The Crystalline State of Isotactic Poly(l-alkyl ethylene)s, Poly(l-alkyl ethylene oxide)s, and Poly(alkyl aldehyde)s.- 1.4. The Rotational-Crystalline State.- 1.5. Crystallization of Comb-Shaped Copolymers.- 1.6. Supermolecular Structure.- References.- 2 Molecular Mobility in Comb-Shaped Polymers.- 2.1. Effect of the Phase State on the Relaxation Properties.- 2.2. Rheological Properties of Comb-Shaped Poly(alkyl acrylate)s and Poly(l-alkyl ethylene)s.- References.- 3 Comb-Shaped Macromolecules in Solutions and Intramolecular Interactions.- 3.1. Optical Anisotropy.- 3.2. Conformational State and Intramolecular Mobility.- 3.3. Unperturbed Dimensions of the Macromolecules.- 3.4. Gel Formation in Solutions of Comb-Shaped Polymers.- References.- 4 Thermotropic Liquid-Crystalline Polymers.- 4.1. General Information on the Formation and Structure of Low-Molecular-Weight Liquid Crystals.- 4.2. The Liquid-Crystalline State in Linear Polymers.- 4.3. Synthesis of Liquid-Crystalline Polymers with Mesogenic Side Groups and Some Features of the Formation of Mesophases.- 4.4. Comb-Shaped Liquid-Crystalline Polymers.- 4.5. Features of the Properties of Thermotropic Liquid-Crystalline Polymers Correlated with Their Macromolecular Nature.- 4.6. Theory of the Liquid-Crystalline Ordering of Melts of Linear and Branched Macromolecules with Mesogenic Groups in the Main and Side Chains.- 4.7. Mechanisms of the Formation and Properties of the Smectic, Nematic, and Cholesteric Mesophases of Liquid-Crystalline Polymers with Mesogenic Side Groups.- 4.8. Behavior of Liquid-Crystalline Polymers in Electrical and Magnetic Fields.- 4.9. Behavior of Liquid-Crystalline Polymers with Mesogenic Side Groups in Dilute Solutions.- References.