Alignment of smectic liquid crystals on newly synthesized photo-reactive polyimide with chalcone moiety

Benzylideneacetophenones are known as chalcones[1]. The chalcone has been known to be a photo-isomerizable and photo-dimerizable chromophore. The chalcone derivatives were prepared by base-catalyzed condensation of aldehydes and acetophenones, which were substituted with various alkyl chains. The synthesized chalcone was introduced into the t-BOC protected diamine through William synthesis reaction. Photocrosslinkable polyimide was prepared via one-step imidization reaction of DOCDA (5-(2,5-dioxotetrahydro furyl}-3-methyl-3-cyclohexene-1,2-dicarboxylic anhydride) and the chalcone introduced diamine using isoquinoline (5 wt%) in m-cresol. The polyimide solutions were spin-coated onto the quartz, silicone wafer and glass substrates and the obtained thin films were irradiated obliquely with linearly polarized UV light.