Temperature Dependence of Molecular Arrangements and Curing Reactions of Reactive Mesogen

Since a transition from liquid crystal to crystal state is slow for the large photo-reactive liquid crystal molecules, it needs a long time for recrystallization of LC242 molecules when lowering the temperature of the liquid crystal. Although liquid crystals usually align along one direction, the directions of individual liquid crystal molecules are little different from one another with increasing temperature, resulting in changes of birefringence of the liquid crystal films. When the photo-reactive liquid crystals are photo-cured, faster curing kinetics and much larger curing degrees are observed for the films cured at the liquid crystal phase.