Abstract
We report the photo switching behaviour of azobenzene-based rod-like polycatenar molecules having three hexyloxy chains at one terminus and a variable chain at the other terminus. The latter was varied with OC6H13, SC6H13, C7H13, OC10H21 and O(CH2)4C6F13 chains. All molecules are liquid crystalline exhibiting wide ranges of nematic phases with cybotactic clusters in addition to Smectic C phase. The effect of variation of terminal chains on the photo-switching properties of the above series of azo compounds upon light irradiation and their kinetic reactions are presented. Surprisingly, trans-cis conversion in solutions takes around 85 s, while relaxing back i.e. cis-trans conversion takes ~30–60 min depending on the type of the terminal chain. On the other hand, irrespective of the nature of the terminal chain all of them exhibit fast thermal back relaxation time. A possible reason for the observed phenomena is presented based on a caterpillar model. Moreover, the potential of one selected example in optical storage device is elucidated. Therefore, this work shows the structure-property relationship in such type of polycatenar molecules related to their photo switching properties.
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