Self-aligned liquid crystal materials and structures are disclosed. The structures can exhibit piezoelectric and flexoelectric properties.

An object of the present invention is to provide a powder mixture containing a polymerizable liquid crystal compound, the powder mixture having a low risk of occurrence of fire due to the flammability of solvent, causing no changes in the appearance due to, for example, precipitation or crystallization of the solute during storage at low temperatures, causing no changes in the composition due to evaporation of solvent during long-term storage or leakage of solvent during long-term storage or transportation, being not viscous and having fluidity unlike nematic liquid crystal compositions, and being easily handled. Another object is to provide a nematic liquid crystal composition, a solution composition, cured products, optical films, and display devices that employ the above-described powder mixture.

The present invention relates to a polymer composition which contains (A) a photosensitive side-chain polymer that exhibits liquid crystallinity in a predetermined temperature range and has a repeating unit comprising a vertically aligning group, and (B) an organic solvent. The present invention provides: a liquid crystal alignment film which has excellent tilt angle characteristics, while being provided with alignment controllability with high efficiency; a polymer composition which enables the achievement of this liquid crystal alignment film; a twisted nematic liquid crystal display element; and a vertical field switching mode liquid crystal display element.

The present disclosure is directed to mesogenic compounds having a structure of Formula (I), (II) or (III): where A, B, X1, L, TG, m, and n are defined herein, and compositions containing these compounds, as well as articles made from such polymerized and prepolymerized compositions and methods of estimating the elastic constants and anchoring constants of a liquid crystal materials and mapping topological defect structures in liquid crystals using these compounds.

##STR00001##

Liquid crystal polymerization films, prepared by applying a polymerizable liquid crystal composition containing a polymerizable liquid crystal compound represented by formula (2) on an alignment film prepared by calcinating a composition containing a polymer represented by a repeating unit of formula (1), and subsequently polymerizing the polymerizable liquid crystal composition.

##STR00001##

In formula (1), R.sup.1 is independently a tetravalent group, R.sup.2 is independently a divalent functional group and R.sup.3 is independently a hydrogen atom or a monovalent functional group.

PG.sup.1-Sp.sup.1-R.sup.4-Sp.sup.2-PG.sup.2(2)

In formula (2), R.sup.4 represents a divalent group formed by combining five or more and nine or less of alicycles and/or aromatic rings, SP.sup.1 and SP.sup.2 represent a spacer group, and PG.sup.1 and PG.sup.2 represents an alkyl group, an alkoxyl group, a cyano group, fluorine or a polymerizable functional group, in which either group is the polymerizable functional group.

An alignment composition is presented that includes an alignment polymer and a reactive mesogen. The alignment polymer includes a polyimide backbone and a vertical alignment side chain combined with the polyimide backbone. The reactive mesogen may be represented by the formula
M5-M1-M2-M3-M4
in which M1 represents a divalent organic group including an aromatic ring group, M2 represents ##STR00001##
M3 represents a single bond, O, O(CH.sub.2).sub.aO, or (CH.sub.2).sub.aO, wherein a represents an integer of 1 to 20, M4 represents an alkenyl group or an alkynyl group having a carbon number of 2 to 20 an alkenylcarbonyl group having a carbon number of 3 to 20, an alkenylcarbonyloxy group having a carbon number of 3 to 20, a an oxotetrahydrofuryl group having (CCH.sub.2) substituted for at least one CH.sub.2, or an epoxy group. M5 represents -M2-M3-M4 or -M3-M4.

Responsive, biocompatible substrates are of interest for directing the maturation and function of cells in vitro during cell culture. This can potentially provide cells and tissues with desirable properties for regenerative therapies. The present disclosure provides a scalable approach to attach, align and dynamically load cells on responsive liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) substrates. Monodomain LCEs exhibit reversible shape changes in response to cyclic stimulus, and when immersed in an aqueous medium on top of, for example, resistive heaters, shape changes are fast, reversible and produce minimal temperature changes in the surroundings.

The present invention provides, as a composition containing a smectic liquid crystal compound which can be used for production of a homogeneous optical film at a temperature around room temperature, a composition containing a smectic liquid crystal compound having a 1,4-cyclohexyl group, which smectic liquid crystal compound having the 1,4-cyclohexyl group contains (i) 100 parts by mass of a smectic liquid crystal compound having a trans-1,4-cyclohexyl group and (ii) 0.1 parts by mass to 10 parts by mass of a smectic liquid crystal compound having a cis-1,4-cyclohexyl group.

Liquid Crystal Elastomer (LCE) fibers, an apparatus for manufacturing, and a method for using the apparatus are provided. LCE fibers formed from each of a plurality of resin recipes can undergo reversible temperature driven actuation of the fiber. Each of the resin recipes forms a fiber having a different actuation temperature. The apparatus includes: an extrusion device, a drawing bobbin, a coating basin, a collector bobbin, a first plurality of curing devices, and a second plurality of curing devices, to transform a resin recipe into a LCE fiber. In operation, the extrusion device extrudes the resin through to the first plurality of curing devices for a partial cure. Once in contact with drawing bobbin the resin is coated in a fluid, and then pull through the second plurality of curing devices for a final cure by collector bobbin, where it can be collected and post-processed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal composition, which can form an optically anisotropic layer in which cissing and wind marks are suppressed in formation of a liquid crystal cured layer having reverse dispersibility, without using a compound having a polyfluoro group; and an optically anisotropic layer, an optical film, a polarizing plate, and an image display device. The optically anisotropic layer of the present invention is an optically anisotropic layer consisting of a liquid crystal cured layer obtained by fixing an alignment state of a liquid crystal composition which contains a reverse dispersion compound (I) represented by Formula (1), at least one liquid crystal compound, and a surfactant (II) having a structure represented by Formula (2) in a molecule, in which the optically anisotropic layer satisfies a relationship of Expression (3).