Issue 4, 2020

Azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline block copolymer supramolecular complexes as a platform for photopatternable colorless materials

Abstract

Supramolecular self-assembly of a host polymer with small guest molecules is a versatile and efficient approach for designing various stimuli-responsive polymer materials among which are liquid crystalline (LC) polymers. This work reports the synthesis and investigation of photosensitive side-chain liquid crystalline triblock copolymer supramolecular complexes formed via intermolecular pyridine–phenol hydrogen bonding. These complexes are based on ABA host triblock copolymers with phenyl benzoate mesogenic groups and 4-vinylpyridine units and an azobenzene-containing phenol, which play the role of small guest molecules. We demonstrate that irradiation of complex films with linearly polarized light and subsequent rinsing with diethyl ether result in colorless birefringent films with recorded phase images. It is shown that the morphology of the triblock copolymer complexes influences the kinetics of the photoorientation as well as the rinsing process. For the films of a random copolymer complex, the rinsing process leads to erasing recorded images, that is, a microphase separated structure is crucial for optical recording.

Graphical abstract: Azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline block copolymer supramolecular complexes as a platform for photopatternable colorless materials

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
21 ноем. 2019
Accepted
20 дек. 2019
First published
20 дек. 2019

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020,8, 1225-1230

Azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline block copolymer supramolecular complexes as a platform for photopatternable colorless materials

M. Bugakov, N. Boiko, S. Abramchuk, X. Zhu and V. Shibaev, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020, 8, 1225 DOI: 10.1039/C9TC06397H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements