Liquid crystal display device, alignment film, and methods for manufacturing the same

A method for forming an alignment film on a display panel comprising:

• providing a display panel having an electrode formed thereon;
• forming a surface alignment reactant on the electrode, wherein the surface alignment reactant comprises a first surface alignment material including a plurality of pre-tilting functional groups having different chain lengths bonded to a siloxane and a second surface alignment material including a phase separation enhancer functional group bonded to a siloxane, wherein the first surface alignment material is a vertical alignment material configured to align liquid crystals substantially perpendicular to a plane of the display panel;
• performing a first heating process on the surface alignment reactant to cause the surface alignment reactant to become phase separated into a surface inorganic layer and a surface functional group layer, wherein the surface inorganic layer includes the second surface alignment material and the surface functional group layer includes the first surface alignment material;
• and
• irradiating the surface functional group layer with light to thereby form an alignment layer on the electrode,
• wherein prior to irradiating the surface functional group layer, the method further comprises performing a second heating process on the surface inorganic layer and the surface functional group layer such that the surface functional group layer is cured, the polysiloxanes in the surface inorganic layer and the surface functional group layer undergo cross-linking reactions and wherein the surface inorganic layer is transformed into a surface inorganic alignment film by the cross-linking reactions, and
• in the first or secondary heating process, an IM-T4 functional group accelerates dehydration and increases cross-linking of the siloxanes of the first surface alignment material and the second surface alignment material.