The effect of spacer and alkyl tail lengths on the photoorientation processes in amorphousized films of azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline polymethacrylates

摘要

In our days, photochromic polymers possessing the liquid crystalline behaviour attract considerable attention of the scientific community due to their functionality and highlighted effects which can be used for opto-electronics and photonics. Herein, the photoorientation processes under the action of the polarised UV (355 nm) and visible (457 nm) light are studied for the amorphousized films of new azobenzene-containing polymethacrylates with different lengths of alkyl spacers and tails (5, 6 and 10 methylene units). The prominent effects of the chemical structure, namely length of the alkyl spacers and tails, as well as wavelength of the excitation light, on the peculiarities of the photoorientation process are demonstrated. Those effects can lead to quite important conclusions concerning possible influence of the microphase separation in polymer films.