Increasing the isomerisation kinetics of azo dyes by chemical bonding to liquid-crystalline polymers

It is well known that the proper substitution of the azobenzene core allows tuning the thermal cis-to-trans isomerisation kinetics of azo dyes. The thermal isomerisation process of nitro-substituted azobenzenes is accelerated up to 13 times with respect to that in the common isotropic solvents when they are doped in nematic low molar mass liquid crystals. This kinetic acceleration is even stronger when these azo dyes are covalently linked to a nematic siloxane polymer. In this environment, the isomerisation process is accelerated more than 10(3) times. This effect is presented herein for the first time. The possible application of the networks obtained as possible photo-actuators has been also considered.