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    Weak surface anchoring energy of 4-cyano-4[prime]-pentyl-1,1[prime]-biphenyl on perfluoropolyether Langmuir-Blodgett films

    Year: 2007

    Journal: J. Chem. Phys. 126, 244706 (2007), 20111221

    Authors: Joette M. Russell-Tanner, Sadao Takayama, Akihiko Sugimura, Joseph M. DeSimone and Edward T. Samulski

    Organizations: Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, CB 3290 Venable Hall, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, Department of Information Systems Engineering, Osaka Sangyo University, 3-1-1 Nakagaito, Daito-Shi, Osaka 574-8530, Japan, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, CB 3290 Venable Hall, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599

    Functional director alignment layers are needed for high performance liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Reported herein is a novel polymer material for LC alignment, namely, perfluoropolyether (PFPE), which exhibits a weak surface anchoring energy for bend deformation and is amenable to simple fabrication of grooved surfaces by soft lithography, a surface topography desired for multistable LCDs. Liquid crystal optical cells fabricated using Langmuir-Blodgett films of PFPE (of variable thickness) exhibited weak surface anchoring energies on the order of 10−5  J/m2 for the nematic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4[prime]-pentyl-1,1[prime]-biphenyl with no dependence on film thickness. ©2007 American Institute of Physics