Homeotropic Alignment and Selective Adsorption of Nanoporous Polymer Film Polymerized from Hydrogen-bonded Liquid Crystal

Nano porous polymer film with a hexagonal colum nar(Coln)structure was fabricated by templated hydroge n-bonding discotic liquid crystals containing methacrylate functional group.The supramolecular hydrogen-bonded complex T3Ph-L is composed of a 1,3/5-tris(1Hbenzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)benzene(T3Ph)core molecule as the hydrogen-bonding acceptor and 3,4,5-tris((11-(methacryloyloxy)undecyl)oxy)benzoic acid(L)peripheral molecules as donors.And the Colh structure is always retained after self-assembly,photo-crosslinking,and removal of the template T3Ph.The nanoporous polymer film can retain the Colh phase even under the dry condition,which indicates more possibilities for practical applicati ons.After chemical modificati on of the inner wall of the nano pores,the nan oporous polymer film with pores of about 1 nm selectively adsorbs ionic dyes,and the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic in nature.Homeotropic alignment can be obtained when the blend complex was sandwiched between two modified glasses after annealing by slow cooling,which shows that the nanoporous polymer film has potential in applications such as nanofiltration.

Determination of Phase Transitions of <i>p</i>,<i>n</i>-Alkyloxy Benzoic Acid Mesogens Using Legendre Moments and Image Analysis

Phase transition temperatures of p,n-alkyloxy benzoic acids (nOBA, n = 3 to 10 and 12) are investigated basing on the textural image analysis of liquid crystal. The analysis is carried out by the computation of Legendre moments. Textures of the homeotropically aligned compounds are recorded as a function of temperature using POM in arthroscopic mode attached to the hot stage and high resolution camera. A recurrence formula is used to compute the liquid crystal textures based on Legendre polynomial. The discontinuities and fluctuations in the values of Legendre moments as a function of temperature are related to the phase transition temperatures of the sample. This method is successful in conforming or detecting the phase transition temperatures and the present findings are comparable with literature.

Effects of Side Chains with Similar Lengths and Different Structures of Polyimides on Liquid Crystal Alignment Behavior

Polyimides（PI） with different side chains in structure were synthesized by copolycondensation of pyromelliticmdianhydride（PMDA） with 3,5-diamino-（4＇-methane acid hexyl ester） phenyl-benzamide（C6-PDA）,（4-butoxybiphenol）-3＇, 5＇-diaminobenzoate（C4-BBDA） and 3, 5-diamino-benzoic acid decyl ester（C10-DA） named PI-PDA, PI-C4, PI-DA, respectively. The lengths of side chains of PI-PDA and PI-DA are as similar as that of PI-C4. Through the pretilt angle tests it is demonstrated that neither the structure of side chains nor the rubbing process could make an obvious difference on vertical alignment property when the lengths of the side chains are similar, standing at around 1.6 nm. The measurement of surface energy of PI surfaces further proved this result. The result of the X-ray photo-electron spectroscope measurement indicated that the side chains of PIs stretched out from the polymer bulk phase and accumulated on the surface.