A film sample is prepared for poly(cyanobiphenyl ethylacrylate), abbreviated to PCB2A, to investigate transparent/opaque change in response to thermal history.PCB2A is thermotropic type liquid crystal, the distance is not far between glass transition temperature (T g ) and the nematic-isotropic transition temperature (T N-I ).The kinetics from isotropic to nematic phase strongly depend on the molecular weight(M w )If M w is high, the transition becomes slow dynamics; for example, it takes more than 60min from isotropic to nematic phase by the temperature jump.This large time lag enables us to control the transparency of PCB2A film by means of a simple thermal treatment slightly below T N-I .The results of the measurement of transmitted light volume for films prepared from samples of different M w can be interpreted in terms of the kinetics of isotropic-nematic phase transition.

Summary This study demonstrates that the modelling approach for the kinetic phenomenon of glass transition is effective to examine the relaxation. In the enthalpy relaxation of poly(cyanobiphenyl‐yloxy) alkyl acrylate, the decrease in enthalpy was measured as a function of ageing time and ageing temperature. Obtained data was analysed at first with the activation energy spectrum (AES) model, and next, with the framework of the entropy model which follows the evolution of the configurational entropy of the sample during the whole thermal history in the experiment. The prediction of DSC curve based on the analysis for the glass transition is presented. AES model gives information about thermally activated processes which are available to contribute to observed enthalpy changes against the thermal history. The activated processes are relevant to the rearrangement of the polymer chain. The effect of molecular weight on the peak maximum appeared in AES is reported.