Fast Response and Spontaneous Alignment in Liquid Crystals Doped with 12-Hydroxystearic Acid Gelators

The spontaneous vertical alignment of liquid crystals (LCs) in gelator (12-hydroxystearic acid)-doped LC cells was studied. Gelator-induced alignment can be used in both positive and negative LC cells. The electro-optical characteristics of the gelator-doped negative LC cell were similar to those of an LC cell that contained a vertically aligned (VA) host. The rise time of the gelator-doped LC cell was two orders of magnitude shorter than that of the VA host LC cell. The experimental results indicate that the gelator-induced vertical alignment of LC molecules occurred not only on the surface of the indium tin oxide (ITO) but also on the homogeneous alignment layer. Various LC alignments (planar, hybrid, multistable hybrid, and vertical alignments) were achieved by modulating the doped gelator concentrations. The multistable characteristic of LCs doped with the gelator is also presented. The alignment by doping with a gelator reduces the manufacturing costs and provides a means of fabricating fast-responding, flexible LC displays using a low-temperature process.

Photo-Induced Vertical Alignment of Liquid Crystals via In Situ Polymerization Initiated by Polyimide Containing Benzophenone

Vertical alignment of liquid crystal (LC) was achieved in an easy and effective way: in situ photopolymerization of dodecyl acrylate (DA) monomers initiated by polyimide based on 3,3',4,4'-benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride and 3,3'-dimethyl-4,4'-diaminodiphenyl methane (BTDA-DMMDA PI). The alignment behavior and alignment stabilities were characterized by a polarizing optical microscope (POM), which showed a stable vertical alignment after 12 h of thermal treatment. The chemical structures, morphology, and water contact angles of alignment films peeled from LC cells with and without DA monomers were analyzed by means of a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and a contact angle tester, separately. The results confirmed that the DA monomers underwent self-polymerization and grafting polymerization initiated by the BTDA-DMMDA PI under ultraviolet irradiation, which aggregated on the surfaces of PI films. The water contact angles of the alignment films were about 15° higher, indicating a relative lower surface energy. In conclusion, the vertical alignment of LC was introduced by the low surface free energy of PI films grafted with DA polymer and intermolecular interactions between LC and DA polymers.

The effect of junction modes between backbones and side chains of polyimides on the stability of liquid crystal vertical alignment

Polyimides (PI-N9 and PI-N12) were synthesized from two kinds of functional diamines, whose junction modes between backbones and side chains were different. Side chains of PI-N9 were linked to the backbones with an ether bond spacer; and side chains of PI-N12 were directly linked to the backbones without any spacer. The PI alignment layer surfaces were investigated by atomic force microscopy, surface free energy measurements, X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy and polarized attenuated total reflection Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. It was found that PI-N9 lost the vertical alignment capability after high-strength rubbing, while PI-N12 could still induce liquid crystals (LCs) to align vertically under the same condition. The mechanism of the macroscopic molecular orientation of the PI surface is proposed. During the high-strength rubbing process, the side chain could rotate around the flexible ether bond which existed between the side chain and the main chain of PI-N9 and then fell over. Therefore, PI-N9 could not induce the vertical alignment of LCs anymore. But PI-N12 could keep LCs aligning vertically all the time, which proved that the stability of LC alignment induced by PI-N12 was better.

The impact of flexibility of polyimides backbones on the stability of liquid crystal vertical alignment

Two side-chain-type polyimides (RPI and SPI) containing different backbones induced vertical alignments of liquid crystals, after rubbing, one maintained stable vertical, while the other transformed from vertical into parallel.

Homogeneous liquid crystal alignment characteristics on solution-derived HfYGaO films treated with IB irradiation

Solution-derived HfYGaO films have been treated by ion beam (IB) irradiation and used as liquid crystal (LC) alignment layers. Solution processing was adopted due to its simplicity, high throughput, and facile composition modification. Homogeneous and uniform LC alignment was achieved on the IB-irradiated HfYGaO films, and when these films were adopted in twisted nematic (TN) cells, electro-optical performance comparable to that of TN cells with conventional polyimide layers was achieved, with almost no capacitance-voltage hysteresis. Moreover, LC cells based on IB-irradiated HfYGaO films had a high thermal budget. The proposed IB-irradiated solution-derived HfYGaO films have considerable potential for use in advanced LC applications.

Hysteresis-free liquid crystal devices based on solution-derived oxide compound films treated by ion beam irradiation

Compounds with a high dielectric constant (high-k compounds) offer fast response times and low threshold voltages, and achieve a hysteresis-free LC device, thereby overcoming a image sticking issue.