A series of novel thermotropic liquid crystalline polyesters bearing nonlinear optical azobenzene side group were synthesized by high temperature solution polycondensation and their structures,thermal stability, phase transition behavior and crystallinity were characterized by IR,elemental analysis, TG-DTA, polarizing optical microscope (POM) equipped with a hot stage and X-ray diffraction techniques. The results demonstrate that all the synthesized polyesters exhibit nematic liquid crystalline phases and show relatively high glass transition temperatures and good thermal stability.
