To investigate the alignment behavior of liquid crystal (LC) molecules, we synthesized a series of vanillin derivative-substituted polystyrene films (PVAN#, # = 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100), where # is the substitution ratio (%) of the vanillyl butyl ether (VAN) moiety as one of the bio-renewable vanillin derivatives. In general, a vertical LC alignment was observed in the LC cell fabricated using the polymer film having a higher molar content of VAN. Moreover, the surface energies of these polymer films were strongly related to the vertical LC alignment behavior. For example, a uniform vertical alignment was observed when the polar surface energy of the polymer was lower than approximately 2.05 mJ m-2, induced by the nonpolar and long carbon groups in the plant-based vanillin moiety. The LC cell fabricated using PVAN100 had good electrooptical characteristics such as voltage holding ratio and residual direct-current voltage and stable alignment under extreme external conditions.
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