Location of the Azobenzene Moieties within the Cross-Linked Liquid-Crystalline Polymers Can Dictate the Direction of Photoinduced Bending

Abstract

We present a simple way to control the photoinduced bending direction of azobenzene-containing cross-linked liquid-crystalline polymers. By changing the location of the photoactive azobenzene moieties from cross-links to side-chains, the bending direction of the sample is reversed under identical irradiation conditions. In addition to providing a versatile route toward directionality control of the photoinduced macroscopic motions, this observation highlights the complicated nature of the photomechanical response of azobenzene-containing cross-linked liquid-crystalline polymers, showing that the photomobile behavior can be determined by seemingly small details on the materials design