Issue 25, 2019, Issue in Progress

Vertical alignment of liquid crystals on plant-based vanillin derivative-substituted polystyrene films

Abstract

To investigate the alignment behavior of liquid crystal (LC) molecules, we synthesized a series of vanillin derivative-substituted polystyrene films (PVAN#, # = 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100), where # is the substitution ratio (%) of the vanillyl butyl ether (VAN) moiety as one of the bio-renewable vanillin derivatives. In general, a vertical LC alignment was observed in the LC cell fabricated using the polymer film having a higher molar content of VAN. Moreover, the surface energies of these polymer films were strongly related to the vertical LC alignment behavior. For example, a uniform vertical alignment was observed when the polar surface energy of the polymer was lower than approximately 2.05 mJ m−2, induced by the nonpolar and long carbon groups in the plant-based vanillin moiety. The LC cell fabricated using PVAN100 had good electrooptical characteristics such as voltage holding ratio and residual direct-current voltage and stable alignment under extreme external conditions.

Graphical abstract: Vertical alignment of liquid crystals on plant-based vanillin derivative-substituted polystyrene films

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Apr 2019
Accepted
02 May 2019
First published
08 May 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 14188-14193

Vertical alignment of liquid crystals on plant-based vanillin derivative-substituted polystyrene films

C. Ju, C. Park, T. Kim and H. Kang, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 14188 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA02629K

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