Control of Chirality of an Azobenzene Liquid Crystalline Polymer with Circularly Polarized Light

Abstract

Irradiation with circularly polarized light of a film of an achiral azobenzene liquid crystalline polymer induces chirality. Circularly polarized light with opposite handedness produces enantiomeric structures. A chirooptical switch based on this phenomenon is reported.

Stirring competes with chemical induction in chiral selection of soft matter aggregates

“…For instance, the latter permits the interconversion of enantiomers in a racemic photoresponsive material 13 , or provides a way for chiral induction on achiral azobenzene-based liquid crystalline polymer films 14,15 and, more recently, has rendered possible a strategy for chiral induction on domains of achiral bent-shape dimers 16 . In a different context, another procedure consists in using unpolarized light in the presence of a coaxial magnetic field 17 .…”

Optical and Physical Applications of Photocontrollable Materials: Azobenzene-Containing and Liquid Crystalline Polymers

“…Photoinduced circular anisotropy was found to depend on the nature of the excitation light (such as its ellipticity, beam intensity, wavelength and irradiation time) [188][189][190][191]. Although the chemical structure of the polymer main-chain employed by each study was different (ester, epoxy, and methacrylate, for example) the proposed mechanism for the generation of the photoinduced chirality was identical.…”

Absolute asymmetric electrochemical polymerization

“…Control of both chirality of azobenzene liquid crystalline polymers with CPL and photo-induced chirality with CPL for amorphous azobenzene polymer films has been achieved [14][15][16][17][18]. Chirality induction for polyfluorene derivatives having no photochromic groups in thin film form upon irradiation of CPL was reported [19].…”