A process for preparing pentabromobenzyl acrylate through the reaction of pentahalobenzyl halide with a salt of acrylic acid in a water-immiscible solvent, wherein said salt is in aqueous form and the reaction is carried out in the presence of a phase transfer catalyst. A process for polymerizing the pentabromobenzyl acrylate in halogenated aromatic solvent and the poly(pentabromobenzyl acrylate) obtained are also disclosed.

A film layer comprising a high-chi () block copolymer for self-assembly and a hexafluoroalcohol-containing surface active polymer (SAP) was prepared on a substrate surface that was neutral wetting to the domains of the self-assembled block copolymer. The block copolymer comprises at least one polycarbonate block and at least one other block (e.g., a substituted or unsubstituted styrene-based block). The film layer, whose top surface has contact with an atmosphere, self-assembles to form a lamellar or cylindrical domain pattern having perpendicular orientation with respect to the underlying surface. Other morphologies (e.g., islands and holes of height 1.0Lo) were obtained with films lacking the SAP. The SAP is preferentially miscible with, and lowers the surface energy of, the domain comprising the polycarbonate block.

A resist composition has a resin (A1) including a structural unit having an acid-labile group, a resin (A2) including a structural unit having a group represented by formula (Ia), and an acid generator. ##STR00001## wherein R.sup.1 in each occurrence independently represents a fluorine atom or a C.sub.1 to C.sub.6 fluorinated alkyl group, ring W represents a C.sub.5 to C.sub.18 alicyclic hydrocarbon group, n represents an integer of 1 to 6, and * represents a binding site.

A resist composition has a resin (A1) including a structural unit having an acid-labile group, a resin (A2) including a structural unit having a group represented by formula (Ia), and an acid generator. ##STR00001## wherein R.sup.1 in each occurrence independently represents a fluorine atom or a C.sub.1 to C.sub.6 fluorinated alkyl group, ring W represents a C.sub.5 to C.sub.18 alicyclic hydrocarbon group, n represents an integer of 1 to 6, and * represents a binding site.

The present invention generally relates to processes for converting an ester group to an acid group for polymers having a pendant ester of an acid group. This process is generally performed using an aqueous strong base.

The present invention relates to a novel method for the preparation of photoaligning polymer materials comprising aryl acrylic acid ester groups, to photoalignment compositions obtained by this process, to the use of the composition as orienting layer for liquid crystals and to non-structured and structured optical elements, electro-optical elements, multi-layer systems or in nanoelectronics comprising the compositions.

The present invention relates to a novel method for the preparation of photoaligning polymer materials comprising aryl acrylic acid ester groups, to photoalignment compositions obtained by this process, to the use of the composition as orienting layer for liquid crystals and to non-structured and structured optical elements, electro-optical elements, multi-layer systems or in nanoelectronics comprising the compositions.