New photoactive polymer and liquid-crystal materials
Y. Zhao
D�partement de Chimie, Universit� de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke,
Qu�bec J1K 2R1, Canada
Abstract: The reversible trans�cis photoisomerization of azobenzene
and azopyridine chromophore was used to design and exploit novel photoactive
materials based on polymers and liquid crystals. This paper reviews
our recent studies on several systems. These include azobenzene-containing
thermoplastic elastomers that can be used to prepare mechanically tunable
diffraction gratings, side-chain azopyridine polymers for combined self-assembly
and photoactivity, azobenzene polymer-stabilized ferroelectric liquid
crystals whose bulk alignment can be achieved by light with no need
for surface orientation layers, and, finally, self-assembled photoactive
liquid-crystal gels that can display light-induced reorganization leading
to the formation of electrically switchable diffraction gratings.
*Lecture presented at the symposium "Polymers in electronics and photonics: Synthesis, characterizations and device applications", as part of the 39th IUPAC Congress and 86th Conference of the Canadian Society for Chemistry: Chemistry at the Interfaces, Ottawa, Canada, 10-15 August 2003. Other Congress presentations are published in this issue, pp. 1295-1603.
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