Alignment behavior of liquid crystals on the crosslinked film of monomers with fluorinated groups

A series of photosensitive monomers, including hexafluorobiphenol A dicinnamate ester (6F-BADE) and fluorinated dicinnamate esters (FDE-n, n=2, 3, 4), were synthesized. These monomers could be crosslinked under irradiation of linearly polarized ultraviolet light. FTIR spectra and GPC spectra were used to measure the results in real time. The results indicated that the crosslinking reaction was [2+2] cycloaddition. The photoalignment films formed by monomers under the ultraviolet light could induce different types of liquid crystal (LC) alignments : 6F-BADE and FDE-n films resulted in vertical and parallel alignments, respectively. AFM images of the surfaces of the alignment showed no obvious anisotropy on the surfaces of these films. Finally, it was found that, using semiempirical method AMI of quantum mechanics, the difference of the polarities among different monomer molecules was large, which was considered to be the main cause resulting in different LC alignments.