Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-1479
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dc.contributor.authorPeng, Bin
dc.date.accessioned1999-12-31T23:00:00Z
dc.date.available2000-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.issued2000
dc.identifier.urihttps://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/1481-
dc.description.abstractLiquid Crystal Polymer Brushes and their Application as Alignment Layers in Liquid Crystal Cells Polymer brushes with liquid crystalline (LC) side chains were synthesized on planar glass substrates and their nematic textures were investigated. The LC polymers consist of an acrylate or a methacrylate main chain and a phenyl benzoate group as the mesogenic unit which is connected to the main chain via a flexible alkyl spacer composed of six CH2 units. The preparation of the LC polymer brushes was carried out according to the grafting from technique: polymerization is carried out from azo-initiators that have been previously self-assembled on the substrate. LC polymer brushes with a thickness from a few nm to 230 nm were synthesized by varying the monomer concentration and the polymerization time. The LC polymer brushes were thick enough to allow for direct observation of the nematic textures with a polarizing microscope. The LC polymer brushes grown on untreated glass substrates exhibited irregular textures ( polydomains ). The domain size is in the range of some micrometers and depends only weakly on the brush thickness. The investigations on the texture-temperature relationship of the LC brushes revealed that the brushes exhibit a surface memory effect, that is, the identical texture reappears after the LC brush sample has experienced a thermal isotropization or a solvent treatment, at which the nematic LC state has been completely destroyed. The surface memory effect is attributed to a strong anchoring of the orientation of the mesogenic units to heterogeneities at the substrate surface. The exact nature of the surface heterogeneities is unknown. The effect was observed for the LC brushes swollen with low molecular weight nematic molecules, as well. Rubbing the glass substrate with a piece of velvet cloth prior to the surface modification with the initiator and the brush growth gives rise to the formation of homogenous alignment of the mesogenic units in the LC polymer side chains. Monodomain textures were obtained for these LC brushes. The mechanism for the homogeneous alignment is based on the transfer of Nylon fibers during the rubbing process. A surfactant was mixed with the azo-initiator in modifying rubbed substrates for subsequent brush generation. Such brushes exhibited biaxial optical properties. Hybrid LC cells made from a substrate modified with biaxial brushes and a rubbed glass substrate show an orientation with a tilt angle of a = 15.6 . This work shows that LC brushes grown on rubbed surfaces fulfill the important criteria for alignment layers: the formation of macroscopic monodomains. First results indicate that by diluting the brush with molecules which are also covalently bound to the surface but induce a different orientation, a system is obtained in which the two conflicting alignment mechanisms can be used to generate a tilted alignment. In order to allow for an application of the alignment layers into a potential product, subsequent work should focus on the questions how easy and in which range the tilt angle can be controlled.en_GB
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsInCopyrightde_DE
dc.rights.urihttps://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.subject.ddc540 Chemiede_DE
dc.subject.ddc540 Chemistry and allied sciencesen_GB
dc.titleLiquid crystal polymer brushes and their application as alignment layers in liquid crystal cellsen_GB
dc.typeDissertationde_DE
dc.identifier.urnurn:nbn:de:hebis:77-869
dc.identifier.doihttp://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-1479-
jgu.type.dinitypedoctoralThesis
jgu.type.versionOriginal worken_GB
jgu.type.resourceText
jgu.organisation.departmentFB 09 Chemie, Pharmazie u. Geowissensch.-
jgu.organisation.year2000
jgu.organisation.number7950-
jgu.organisation.nameJohannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz-
jgu.rights.accessrightsopenAccess-
jgu.organisation.placeMainz-
jgu.subject.ddccode540
opus.date.accessioned1999-12-31T23:00:00Z
opus.date.modified1999-12-31T23:00:00Z
opus.date.available2000-01-01T00:00:00
opus.organisation.stringFB 09: Chemie, Pharmazie und Geowissenschaften: FB 09: Chemie, Pharmazie und Geowissenschaftende_DE
opus.identifier.opusid86
opus.institute.number0900
opus.metadataonlyfalse
opus.type.contenttypeDissertationde_DE
opus.type.contenttypeDissertationen_GB
jgu.organisation.rorhttps://ror.org/023b0x485
Appears in collections:JGU-Publikationen

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