Photoaligning Polymeric Command Surfaces: Bind, or Mix?

Ameer R K Nassrah; Marianna Batkova; Natália Tomašovičová; Tibor Tóth-Katona

doi:10.3390/polym15214271

Photoaligning Polymeric Command Surfaces: Bind, or Mix?

Polymers (Basel). 2023 Oct 30;15(21):4271. doi: 10.3390/polym15214271.

Authors

Ameer R K Nassrah^{1

2}, Marianna Batkova³, Natália Tomašovičová³, Tibor Tóth-Katona¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary.
² Faculty of Science, Eötvös Loránd University, P.O. Box 32, H-1518 Budapest, Hungary.
³ Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonová 47, 04001 Kosice, Slovakia.

Abstract

We compare photoaligning properties of polymer layers fabricated from the same constituents: polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) and azo-dye Disperse Red 1 (DR1), either chemically attached to the PMMA main-chain, or physically mixed with it. Photoaligning properties depend on the preparation method drastically. Photoalignment was found to be far more efficient when PMMA is functionalized with DR1 compared to the case of physically mixing the constituents. This finding is supported by atomic force microscope (AFM) scans monitoring the light-induced changes at the polymer-air interface, and revealing a photoinduced mass transfer, especially in the case of functionalized PMMA.

Keywords: nematic–polymer interface; optical actuators; optical sensors; photoalignment; polymer–air interface.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Research Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) grant number FK 142643, by Research and Development Agency grant number APVV-20-0299, and by the VEGA project No. 2/0043/21. A.R.K.N. acknowledges the financial support from Erasmus+ Programme, contract number 21/1/KA131/000003804/SMT-731, and the support obtained from Wigner RCP.