The cooperative research program is intended to build on a small but highly successful collaboration between Cornell and the German universities of Mainz and Clausthal in the study of ferroelectric liquid crystalline polymers. The U.S. side has experience in the preparation of block copolymers and the characterization of block copolymers and liquid crystals in real time using synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The German group in Clausthal is expert in the x-ray diffraction of liquid crystal polymers using conventional methods, while the group in Clausthal is experienced in ferroelectric liquid crystal polymers. The collaboration will enhance the research through short-term visits of faculty and longer- term exchanges of students, who will learn new methods of characterizing the polymers they synthesize. Most of the methods developed by the Germans to study liquid crystal polymers will, as a result of the exchanges, be brought in-house to Cornell.
