Effect of Temperature on Photoinduced Reorientation of Azobenzene Chromophore in the Side Chain Copolymers

摘要

We synthesized the photoresponsive side chain polymers containing aminonitro azobenzene for studying the effect of temperature on photoinduced birefringence. Four different copolymers were prepared using methacrylate, メ-methylstyrene, and itaconate monomer. Photoisomerization was observed under the exposure of UV light using UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy. Reorientation of polar azobenzene molecules induced optical anisotropy under a linearly polarized light at 532 nm. The change of the birefringence was observed with increasing the sample temperature under a continuous irradiation of excitation light. We could estimate the activation energy of molecular motion in thermal and photochemical mode. Besides the effect of glass transition temperature on the activation energy, we focused our interests on the effect of geometrical hindrance of polar azobenzene molecules and cooperative motion of environmental mesogenic molecules in the vicinity of polar azobenzene molecules.