TY - THES A1 - Tomczyk, Jaroslaw T1 - Photoinduced optical anisotropy in films of photochromic star-shaped liquid crystals Y1 - 2013 CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tomczyk, Jaroslaw A1 - Sobolewska, Anna A1 - Nagy, Zsuzsanna T. A1 - Guillon, Daniel A1 - Donnio, Bertrand A1 - Stumpe, Joachim T1 - Photo- and thermal-processing of azobenzene-containing star-shaped liquid crystals JF - Journal of materials chemistry : C, Materials for optical and electronic devices N2 - A new class of star-shaped, liquid crystalline, low-molecular weight compounds functionalized with photochromic azobenzene and mesogenic groups was investigated in terms of light-induced anisotropy. The behaviour of the materials under the action of light with simultaneous or subsequent thermal treatment was examined with respect to the induction of anisotropy. The unconventional UV light treatment prior to the irradiation with linearly polarized light allowed induction of very high values of anisotropy (D = 0.77) at room temperature. Moreover, the simultaneous action of light and temperature led to the induction of higher values of dichroism in comparison with anisotropy generated by the standard procedure. Subsequent thermal treatment led to dewetting and the formation of 3D macroscopic stripe- and dome-like structures for one of the investigated compounds. Despite photoinduction of anisotropy by a single beam, the formation of polarization and surface relief gratings by two-beam interference pattern was also investigated. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c2tc00627h SN - 2050-7526 VL - 1 IS - 5 SP - 924 EP - 932 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nagy, Zsuzsanna T. A1 - Heinrich, Benoit A1 - Guillon, Daniel A1 - Tomczyk, Jaroslaw A1 - Stumpe, Joachim A1 - Donnio, Bertrand T1 - Heterolithic azobenzene-containing supermolecular tripedal liquid crystals self-organizing into highly segregated bilayered smectic phases JF - Journal of materials chemistry N2 - Synthesis, self-organization, and optical properties of supermolecular tripedal liquid crystals incorporating various prototypical mesogenic units such as alkoxy-azobenzene (AZB), alkoxy-biphenylene (BPH) or alkoxy-cyanobiphenyl (OCB) derivatives are reported. Different molecular systems were designed in order to sequentially incorporate the smectogenic-like alkoxy-azobenzene-based chromophore within the molecular structure, whose relative proportion is selectively varied by exchanging with the other mesogens. A divergent synthetic mode was elaborated for their synthesis, starting from the regioselective functionalization of the phloroglucinol-based (PG) inner core. This methodology allowed the preparation of several sets of unconventional tripedal oligomers with conjugated heterolithic structures (made of different blocks, e.g. PG(6)AZB(x)BPH(3-x) and PG(6)AZB(x)OCB(3-x), x = 1 or 2) along the homolithic parents (all identical blocks, e.g. PG(z)AZB(3), z = 6 or 11, z is the number of methylene in the spacer between PG and the protomesogen, PG(6)BPH(3), and PG(6)OCB(3)), respectively. Essentially all the synthesized systems behave as thermotropic liquid crystals and show various types of highly segregated multilayered smectic phases, or, in one case, a nematic phase, depending on the nature of the constitutive anisotropic blocks and on the molecular topology (homolithic versus heterolithic, mesogenic ratio x : 3 - x). The effects of these structural modifications on the mesomorphism (mesophase structures, temperature ranges, and thermodynamic stability) have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and small-angle X-ray diffraction experiments combined with dilatometric measurements. Models describing the various supramolecular organizations of these tripedes into such multilayered structures are proposed and discussed. Preliminary results of the investigations of their optical properties will also be presented. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c2jm33751g SN - 0959-9428 VL - 22 IS - 35 SP - 18614 EP - 18622 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER -