PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SIDE-CHAIN LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE POLYMER THIN-FILMS ALIGNED ON PTFE FRICTION-TRANSFERRED LAYERS

Annealing of a side-chain LC polymer (SC-LCP) and a fluorescent dye co ntaining copolymer deposited on friction-transferred PTFE substrates i s found to yield macroscopically aligned glassy films. The results obt ained by electron diffraction, u.v.-visible and FTi.r. spectroscopy cl early demonstrate that the mesogenic side-groups as well as the fluore scence dye orient with their long axes parallel to the PTFE chain axis . Thus, the SC-LCP aligned thin films adopt a near perfect bookshelf g eometry in which the smectic layers are oriented edge-on and perpendic ular to the alignment direction. The order parameter P-2 increases fro m 0.60 to as high as 0.85 when the annealing temperature in the smecti c mesophase approaches the smectic to nematic phase transition tempera ture. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.