Liquid crystalline material
AssigneeMerck Patent Gesellschaft Mit Beshrankter Haftung
InventorMark Goulding
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A liquid crystalline material in the form of an anisotropic gel containing a polymerized monotropic or enantiotropic liquid crystalline material and a low-molecular weight liquid crystalline material, wherein the polymerized material a) forms a permanently oriented network in the low-molecular weight liquid crystalline material b), wherein a) is obtained by (co)-polymerization of a chiral polymerizable compound, and a display cell with such a material. Also, novel bifunctional reactive chiral compounds, novel chiral vinylethers and (co)-polymerizable precursor materials.
Claims14
A copolymerizable precursor material comprising at least one bifunctional reactive achiral compound of formula VI
- R.sup.4 --(P).sub.u --MG.sup.1 --(P).sub.u --R.sup.4 VI
- and at least one mono reactive chiral compound of formula I
- R.sup.4 --(P).sub.u --X--(MG.sup.1).sub.q --C*--(MG.sup.2).sub.t --R.sup.5I
- wherein
- R.sup.4 is CH.sub.2 .dbd.CW--COO--, ##STR54## HWN--, CH.sub.2 .dbd.CH--, CH.sub.2 .dbd.CH--O-- or HS--CH.sub.2 --(CH.sub.2).sub.m --COO-- with W being H, Cl or alkyl with 1-5 C atoms and m being 1-7,
- P is alkylene with 1 to 12 C atoms, optionally, with one or more non-adjacent CH.sub.2 groups replaced by --O--,
- X is --O--, --S--, --COO--, --OCO-- or a single bond,
- R.sup.5 is an alkyl radical with 1 to 15 C atoms which is unsubstituted or mono- or polysubstituted by halogen, optionally with one or more CH groups replaced, in each case independently of one another, by --O--, --S--, --CO--, --OCO--, --CO--O-- or --O--CO--O-- in such a manner that oxygen atoms are not linked directly to one another, or alternatively R.sup.5 has one of the meanings given for R.sup.4 --(P).sub.u --X--,
- MG.sup.1 and MG.sup.2 are each independently a mesogenic group comprising an aromatic ring system or two or more ring systems optionally linked by bridging groups,
- C* is an optically active group,
- q an t are each independently 0 or 1 provided that q+t is 1 or 2, and
- u is 0 or 1.
A monofunctional reactive compound of formula IIIa ##STR59## in which R.sup.4 is CH.sub.2 .dbd.CW--COO--, ##STR60## HWN--, CH.sub.2 .dbd.CH--, CH.sub.2 .dbd.CH--O-- or HS--CH.sub.2 --(CH.sub.2).sub.m --COO-- with W being H, Cl or alkyl with 1-5 C atoms and m being 1-7,
- P is alkylene with 1 to 12 C atoms, optionally, with one or more non-adjacent CH.sub.2 groups replaced by --O--,
- X is --O--, --S--, --COO--, --OCO-- or a single bond,
- u is 0 or 1,
- A.sup.3 is optionally fluorinated 1,4-phenylene in which one or two CH groups may be replaced by N or 1,4-cyclohexylene in which one or two non-adjacent CH.sub.2 groups may be replaced by O,
- Z.sup.2 is --CO--O--, --O--CO--, --OCH.sub.2 --, --CH.sub.2 O--, --CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 --, --C.ident.C--, --C.ident.C--C.ident.C--, or a single bond,
- n is 0 or an integer of 1 to 20,
- p is 1 or 2, and
- m is an integer of from 2 to 10.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.