Abstract
We presented the results for the surface anchoring properties of a nematic liquid crystal (LC) in a wide range of the substrate wettability through thermo-transfer printing of siloxane oligomers. For the modification of the surface energy, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) oligomers were directly transferred onto a glass substrate from a bulk PDMS plate by contact printing at elevated temperatures. The hydrophobicity of the PDMS-modified surface was found to increase with the temperature of the substrate during transfer printing. The LC alignment on the PDMS-modified substrate exhibited continuous variations of the pretilt angle from nearly 0° to 90° and the polar anchoring strength according to the surface energy.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1236-1242 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Liquid Crystals |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2 2015 |
Keywords
- liquid crystal alignment
- poly(dimethylsiloxane)
- pretilt angle
- thermo-transfer printing