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Updated: Sep 23, 2025

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Location of the Azobenzene Moieties within the Cross-Linked Liquid-Crystalline Polymers Can Dictate the Direction of
Arri Priimagi1,2, Aki Shimamura1, Mizuho Kondo1
1Chemical Resources Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, R1-12, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan.
Abstract:
We present a simple way to control the photoinduced bending direction of azobenzene-containing cross-linked liquid-crystalline polymers. By changing the location of the photoactive azobenzene moieties from cross-links to side-chains, the bending direction of the sample is reversed under identical irradiation conditions. In addition to providing a versatile route toward directionality control of the photoinduced macroscopic motions, this observation highlights the complicated nature of the photomechanical response of azobenzene-containing cross-linked liquid-crystalline polymers, showing that the photomobile behavior can be determined by seemingly small details on the materials design.
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