Liquid Crystalline Polymer Coatings Fabricated by Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract Liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) coatings offer avenues for the fabrication of devices with smart surfaces incorporating responsive topography, reflectivity, or polarization from their unique anisotropic optical and mechanical properties. LCPs have most commonly been made by photopolymerization of reactive mesogens within confined cells. Here, an alternative method of preparing LCP coatings using initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) is described. LCP‐iCVD copolymer coatings comprised of an acrylic cyanobiphenyl mesogenic monomer copolymerized with vinyl ether crosslinkers are prepared. Systematic experiments examine the relationship between the monomer properties, reactor conditions, and polymer deposition rate. The alignment of the mesogenic phase in the as‐synthesized coatings is also demonstrated to be controlled by the surface energy of the underlying substrate. Interestingly, the surface properties of LCP coatings measured by atomic force microscopy are shown to depend on the director orientation. The data presented in this work introduce mesogenic monomers into the library of vapor‐deposited polymer coatings.