Enhancement of Molecular Orientation of Liquid Crystal on Photoreactive Polymers by using Non-Photoreactive Naphthalenic Polyimide

Polyimides are blended with photoreactive polymers in order to improve the thermal stability of molecular orientation of photoreactive groups induced by polarized UV irradiation. The polyimide/photopolymer blends can be applied for the photo-induced liquid crystal alignment layers. However, the polyimides are also decomposed by UV irradiation and this may have the negative effect on the orientation of liquid crystals. In order to elucidate the influence of polyimide on the molecular orientation of liquid crystal, non-photoreactive naphthalenic polyimide (1,4,5,8-naphthalene tetracarboxylic dianhydride} was selected for the blend alignment layers. We prepared the blends of photo-reactive coumarin polymers and naphthalenic polyimide, and investigated the orientation of liquid crystals. Thermal stability of the orientation of liquid crystals was enhanced due to the thermally stable polyimide. However, there was no other side-effect of polyimide on the orientation of liquid crystals and this might be attributed to the non-photo-reactivity of naphtahlenic polyimide.