Methods of grafting a liquid crystalline coating onto a substrate, and articles comprising a substrate with a liquid crystalline coating are disclosed. The liquid crystalline coatings can be formed by (a) applying a primer layer comprising a Type II photoinitiator to a surface of the substrate, then (b) applying a coating mixture that comprises one or more liquid crystalline monomers to the surface of the substrate, and then (c) irradiating the coating mixture to form the liquid crystalline coating. The coating mixture can further comprise a second amount of a Type II photoinitiator. The methods can be performed in open air, at room temperature, or at ambient pressure, and the resulting liquid crystalline coatings can exhibit improved adhesive properties to the substrate.

Provided are a polymerizable composition of a polymerizable compound represented by formula I and a polymerizable compound represented by formula II, a liquid crystal composition formed by combining this polymerizable composition with a specific liquid crystal component, particularly a PSVA liquid crystal composition suitable for display or TV applications, and a PSA-IPS liquid crystal composition for an IPS mode; in particular, the polymerizable liquid crystal composition has a good solubility, and an adjustable rate of polymerization and morphology after polymerization; furthermore, a material system formed from the selected polymerizable component and liquid crystal component has a low rotary viscosity and good photoelectric properties, and has a high VHR after (UV) photoradiation, this avoiding the problems of the occurrence of afterimages in final displays, etc.

A phase difference film is formed by using a liquid crystal compound and that indicates an Nz factor of more than 0 and less than 1, an optical film with same, and a display device. The phase difference film is formed by using a composition including a polymerizable liquid crystal compound having a mesogen group, where an order parameter of the mesogen group in an in-plane slow axis direction of the phase difference film is set as Sx, an order parameter of the mesogen group in a direction orthogonal to the in-plane slow axis direction in a plane is set as Sy, and an order parameter of the mesogen group in a thickness direction of the phase difference film is set as Sz, in a case where the mesogen group has a rod or a disc shape, differing Expressions are satisfied.

The present invention provides a compound represented by the general formula (I), and a polymerizable composition containing the compound. When the polymerizable composition containing the compound represented by the formula (I) is used to form a filmy product, the resulting filmy product exhibits less change over time in phase difference and reverse wavelength dispersion and when the filmy polymer is irradiated with UV light, peeling from a substrate is unlikely to be caused. Further, the invention provides a polymer obtained through polymerization of the polymerizable composition and an optically anisotropic body obtained using the polymer.

A liquid crystal composition is provided containing a first liquid crystal compound represented by formula (1):

##STR00001##

and a second liquid crystal compound represented by formula (2):

##STR00002##

Also provided is a method for producing the liquid crystal composition having a desired wavelength dispersion characteristic.

Disclosed is a mixture containing polymerizable compounds having Formulas (III) and (IV) wherein Ar.sup.1 and Ar.sup.2 are divalent aromatic hydrocarbon or heteroaromatic ring group having D1 or D2 as a substituent; D.sup.1 and D.sup.2 are C1-C20 organic group having at least one aromatic ring selected from the group consisting of aromatic hydrocarbon ring and heteroaromatic ring; A.sup.11-A.sup.22 and B.sup.11-B.sup.22 are alicyclic or aromatic group which may have a substituent, Y.sup.11-Y.sup.22 and L.sup.11-L.sup.22 are single bond, O, CO, COO, OCO, NR.sup.21CO, CONR.sup.22, OCOO, NR.sup.23COO, OCONR.sup.24 or NR.sup.25CONR.sup.26 where R.sup.21-R.sup.26 are hydrogen or C1-C6 alkyl group; R.sup.4-R.sup.9 are hydrogen, methyl group or chlorine; one of f and k is integer of 1 to 3 with the other being integer of 0 to 3; g, j, m and q are integer of 1 to 20; and h, i, n and p are 0 or 1.

##STR00001##

New dichroic dyes having a composition with slave materials. The dyes may be used for a dichroic polymer network, a dichroic liquid crystalline polymer film (LCP film) or a dichroic liquid crystalline polymer gel, which for instance find application as electro-optical or optical devices.

A liquid crystal display device, containing: a pair of substrates provided with an electrode and a liquid crystal layer formed by disposing a liquid crystal composition between the pair of substrates and by irradiating and curing the liquid crystal composition with ultraviolet rays using an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus, wherein at least one of the substrates is further provided with a liquid crystal alignment film to vertically align a liquid crystal, the liquid crystal composition contains a liquid crystal, a curable resin, a bifunctional monomer and a monomer having at least one polar group of a hydroxy group, a carboxy group or a phosphoric acid group, and the liquid crystal alignment film is a liquid crystal alignment film obtained from a liquid crystal aligning agent containing a polymer having a specific side chain structure.

The present invention provides a polymerizable composition containing a specific polymerizable compound and a fluorosurfactant having, in its molecule, a pentaerythritol skeleton or a dipentaerythritol skeleton. The invention also provides an optically anisotropic body, a retardation film, an antireflective film, and a liquid crystal display device that are produced using the polymerizable composition of the present invention. The present invention is useful because, when an optically anisotropic body is produced by photo-polymerization of the polymerizable composition, three features including the leveling properties of the surface of the optically anisotropic body, offset onto the substrate, and liquid crystal alignment can be improved simultaneously.

A liquid crystal composition including: a polymerizable liquid crystal compound capable of expressing birefringence with inverse wavelength dispersion; and a (meth)acrylate compound containing two or more (meth)acryloyl groups per one molecule, wherein: an amount of the (meth)acrylate compound is 8 parts by weight or less, the amount being relative to 100 parts by weight of a sum total of the polymerizable liquid crystal compound and the (meth)acrylate compound.