Photomobile Behavior of Crosslinked Liquid-crystalline Polymers at 5 kelvin

Abstract

Crosslinked liquid-crystalline polymers containing azobenzene can deform at 5 K under vacuum when irradiated with UV light. This result indicates that photochemical reactions of azobenzene play an important role in this deformation at 5 K, even though a rise in temperature of the polymer films was observed by UV irradiation. We evaluated photoisomerization behavior of azobenzene molecules in the PMMA film and PMMA-co-PMA6AB. These samples isomerize upon exposure to UV light in the liquid nitrogen, 77 K.