Study of in‐situ photopolymerization of chiral liquid crystal acrylate

The effect of the smectic and isotropic phase on the photopolymerization of the chiral liquid crystalline 4-acryloxy-undecanyloxy-4'-[S(-)-2-methylbutyloxy]-biphenyl (monomer (I)) was studied using FTIR. The effect of temperature on the birefringence of surface-oriented monomer (I) and its polymer obtained by in-situ photopolymerization was also investigated. The results show that photopolymerization in the isotropic phase proceeds at a higher rate than in the smectic phase, when monomer conversion is less than 60% ; however, when monomer conversion is above 60%, the photopolymerization rate is independent of the initial phase state of monomer (I), and a highly oriented liquid crystalline polyacrylate film can be prepared by in-situ photopolymerization of the surface-oriented chiral acrylate (I).