《ma034886d 铁电液晶的光引入排列使用偶氮苯聚合物网络手性聚丙烯酸酯和聚甲基丙烯酸酯》.pdfVIP

9024 Macromolecules 2003, 36, Photoinduced Alignment of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals Using Azobenzene Polymer Networks of Chiral Polyacrylates and Polymethacrylates Steve Leclair,† Lizamma Mathew,† Martin Gigue`re,‡ Shahrokh Motallebi,‡ and Yue Zhao*,† De´partement de Chimie, Universite´ de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Que´bec, Canada J1K 2R1, and St-Jean PhotoChemicals, 725 Trotter, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que´bec, Canada J3B 8J8 Received June 27, 2003; Revised Manuscript Received September 19, 2003 ABSTRACT: Two chiral dimethacrylate and one chiral diacrylate monomer containing an azobenzene group were synthesized and dissolved in a commercial ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) host. With two of the monomers, thermally induced radical polymerization with the mixture exposed to linearly polarized irradiation results in a bulk alignment of FLC in the direction perpendicular to the polarization of irradiation light as a result of the photoinduced orientation of azobenzene groups related to the trans cis isomerization. The monomer that is most effective for photoalignment of FLC displays a polymer network formed by strings of colloidal particles (250 nm in diameter), which exerts a commanding effect on the alignment of FLC as being able to reorient the FLC by changing the polarization direction of subsequent irradiation. The study suggests that the network of colloidal particles is isotropic and that the photoalignment of azobenzene moieties on the large surface of the network dictates the alignment of FLC. Introduction More recently, we reported that azobenzene polymer