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Soluble polyimide as liquid crystal perpendicular alignment layer

  • Polymers & biopolymers
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Abstract

Three polyimides (PIs) were prepared from a diamine containing biphenyl ester group as a side chain and a corresponding dianhydride chosen from 1,2,3,4-cyclobutanetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PI-1), 4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride (PI-2) or pyromellitic dianhydride (PI-3). Chemical structures of the resulting PIs were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and 1H NMR spectroscopy. While PI-3 was insoluble in any of organic solvents after the imidization process, PI-1 and PI-2 showed good solubility in polar aprotic solvents. Especially, PI-2 exhibited remarkable solubility even in chloroform and tetrahydrofuran. Liquid crystal (LC) alignment layers were prepared from these PIs by conventional rubbing processes, and subjected to fabricate LC cells for the characterization of alignment properties. In all cases, a uniform alignment was observed as confirmed by angle dependence polarizing microscopic technique. LC alignment directors of these polymer films were found to be perpendicular to the rubbing direction due to the perpendicularly attached biphenyl moiety to the main chain. LC pretilt angle and electro-optical properties of these LC cells were also investigated.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (21766040), Guizhou Provincial Natural Science Foundation ([2016]1419), Natural Science Research Project of Guizhou Education Department ([2019]058), Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Chemical Power Sources (No: SKL-ACPS-C-18). MHL also thanks to the financial support from the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2018R1D1A1B07044250), and the research funds of Jeonbuk National University in 2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Zunyi Normal University, Zunyi, 563006, Guizhou, China

    Pushan Wen

  2. Graduate School of Flexible and Printable Electronics, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54896, Jeonbuk, Korea

    Pushan Wen, Rui He & Myong-Hoon Lee

  3. Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., Wuhan, 430078, Hubei, China

    Rui He

  4. Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials Science of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission & Ministry of Education, South-Central Minzu University, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, China

    Xiang-Dan Li

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  1. Pushan Wen
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  2. Rui He
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  4. Myong-Hoon Lee
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Correspondence to Myong-Hoon Lee.

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Wen, P., He, R., Li, XD. et al. Soluble polyimide as liquid crystal perpendicular alignment layer. J Mater Sci 57, 755–765 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06627-1

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