Modified Side-Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymer Thin Films as Low Adhesion Surfaces

The adhesive properties of side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymer thin films against soft acrylic pressure-sensitive-adhesive layers have been investigated with the probe method. Since the structure of the thin films varies from crystalline to liquid crystalline or to fully isotropic state as a function of temperature, we investigated the effect of annealing temperature of the interface on the adhesive properties. All the layers displayed very low adhesion at room temperature but above the crystalline to LC transition temperature, this low adhesion property disappears, presumably due to the reorganization of interfacial structure. To avoid this reconstruction, the 14C alkyl side-chains were modified by the incorporation of SO$_{2}$ groups that experience the dipole-dipole interactions and provide remarkable temperature stability to the crystalline phases. We further investigated the influence of the position and the kind of polar group in the side-chains on the structural and adhesion properties of those block-copolymers.