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Inducing Planar Orientation in Side‐Chain Liquid‐Crystalline Polymer Systems via Interfacial Control
Author(s) -
Nagano Shusaku
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the chemical record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1528-0691
pISSN - 1527-8999
DOI - 10.1002/tcr.201500232
Subject(s) - azobenzene , liquid crystal , materials science , polymer , mesoscopic physics , planar , mesogen , perpendicular , side chain , nanotechnology , orientation (vector space) , molecule , optoelectronics , chemistry , liquid crystalline , composite material , organic chemistry , computer science , condensed matter physics , geometry , physics , computer graphics (images) , mathematics
For efficient photoresponses of liquid‐crystal (LC) azobenzene (Az) polymer systems, planar LC orientation of the Az mesogenic group is required because the light irradiation process usually occurs with normal incidence to the film surface. However, LC molecules with a rodlike shape tend to orient perpendicularly to the film surface according to the excluded volume effect theory. This review introduces new approaches for inducing planar orientation in side‐chain LC Az polymer films via interface and surface molecular designs. The planar orientation offers efficient in‐plane photoalignment and photoswitching to hierarchical LC architectures from molecular LC mesogens and LC phases to mesoscopic microphase‐separated structures. These approaches are expected to provide new concepts and possibilities in new LC polymer devices.