Synthesis and liquid crystal alignment properties of new cinnamate-based photocrosslinkable polymers

Because optical buffing can achieve aligning patterns with different azimut hal angles of the liquid crystal directors, photoalignment appears to be a very hopeful technique for designing complex LCD structures. Until recently , most photopolymers provided low anchoring and/or low tilt angles which ar e unsuitable for industrial applications. In this work, four new photocross linkable polymers based on biphenyl and naphthalene moieties have been prep ared and characterized. These photopolymers have been irradiated with linea rly polarized UV light, and liquid crystal cells have been made. The tilt a ngles generated by oblique irradiation have been measured as well as the an choring energies. Finally, the stability of the liquid crystal alignment pr operties have been studied.