Journal
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
Volume 25, Issue 23, Pages 3571-3580Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201500942
Keywords
liquid crystals; photoalignment; pillararene-based macrocyclic azobenzenes; stimuli-responsive materials; thin films
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [20874044, 91227106]
- Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University
- National Science Fund for Talent Training in Basic Science [J1103310]
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Photoresponsive materials (PRMs) have long been a hot topic and photo-modulated smart surface is very appealing. Particularly, liquid crystalline PRMs are able to amplify and stabilize photoinduced orientation thanks to their self-assembling and ordering characteristics. Herein, the first pillararene-based azobenzene liquid crystalline PRM with well-defined structure is presented, which can avoid the usually ill-defined composition drawback of polymer PRMs and prevent the severe H-aggregation from suppressing or even completely blocking photoresponse in simple azobenzene derivatives. The pillar[5]arene-based macrocyclic azobenzenes with variant length spacers show wide temperature range smectic liquid crystalline mesophases and excellent film-formation property. The tubular pillar[5]arene macrocyclic framework provides sufficient free volume for azobenzene moieties to achieve reversible photoisomerization and photoalignment; thus, their thin films demonstrate excellent light-triggered modulation of surface free energy, wettability, and even photoalignment-mediated orientation of an upper layer discotic liquid crystal columnar mesophase. Such pillararene-based azobenzene liquid crystals represent novel and promising PRMs with extensive fascinating applications.
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