Six new chiral (meth)acryalte liquid crystalline monomers (M

1

~M

6

) derived from menthol were synthesized. The corresponding polymers (M

1

~M

6

) were obtained by means of free radical polymerization of these monomers with azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as an initiator and toluene as a solvent. The chemical structures of the obtained intermediate

monomers and polymers were characterized by FT-IR

or 1H NMR. The average molecular weight was determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The specific optical rotations were evaluated with a polarimeter. The experimental results showed that the specific optical rotations of M

1

~M

6

and M

1

~M

6

were all left-handed

which indicates that the configuration or rotation direction of these chiral new compounds is hardly affected by a series of chemical reaction. In addition

the specific optical rotation values decreased with increasing the number of phenyl ring or the length of flexible spacer. However

the specific optical rotation absolute values of M

1

~M

6

were less than those of the corresponding monomers.