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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Fabrication of Large-area Free-standing Ultrathin Polymer Films
Published on: June 3, 2015
Weak surface anchoring energy of 4-cyano-4'-pentyl-1,1'-biphenyl on perfluoropolyether Langmuir-Blodgett films
Joette M Russell-Tanner1, Sadao Takayama, Akihiko Sugimura
1Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, CB 3290 Venable Hall, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
Abstract:
Functional director alignment layers are needed for high performance liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Reported herein is a novel polymer material for LC alignment, namely, perfluoropolyether (PFPE), which exhibits a weak surface anchoring energy for bend deformation and is amenable to simple fabrication of grooved surfaces by soft lithography, a surface topography desired for multistable LCDs. Liquid crystal optical cells fabricated using Langmuir-Blodgett films of PFPE (of variable thickness) exhibited weak surface anchoring energies on the order of 10(-5) Jm2 for the nematic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4'-pentyl-1,1'-biphenyl with no dependence on film thickness.
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