JP2014206718A - Liquid crystal aligning agent, liquid crystal alignment film, and liquid crystal display element and method of producing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid crystal aligning agent comprising pyrrolidone in solvent, a liquid crystal alignment film using the liquid crystal aligning agent, and a liquid crystal display element comprising the liquid crystal alignment film and a method of producing the same.SOLUTION: A liquid crystal aligning agent comprises solvent comprising pyrrolidone represented by the following formula 1, where R is C-Cbranched-chain hydrocarbon group.

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid crystal alignment agent, and in particular, a liquid crystal alignment agent containing pyrrolidone in a solvent, a liquid crystal alignment film produced using the liquid crystal alignment agent, and a liquid crystal display element including the liquid crystal alignment film And its manufacturing method.

  A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a display that utilizes the photoelectric properties of liquid crystal and has the advantages of small size, light weight, low power consumption, and excellent display quality. It has become.

  Liquid crystal displays have evolved from twisted nematic (TN) to super twisted nematic (STN) in response to demands for increased screen size, high color saturation, high contrast, and high response speed. Furthermore, it has been developed to a TFT type display device in which a thin film transistor (TFT) is mounted on each pixel. In recent years, continuous improvements have been made to driving methods of TFT display devices, and in the direction of visual improvement, vertical alignment methods and in-plane switching methods have been developed. Yes. In addition, an OCB (optically compensated bend) method capable of improving the response speed corresponding to a moving image has been developed.

  As a typical liquid crystal element in the liquid crystal display element, there is a twisted nematic (TN) field effect liquid crystal element using a nematic liquid crystal having positive dielectric anisotropy. In general, liquid crystal molecules are disposed between a pair of substrates having electrodes, the alignment directions of these two substrates are perpendicular to each other, and the arrangement method of the liquid crystal molecules can be controlled by controlling the electric field. it can. For this type of liquid crystal display element, it is important that the major axis direction of the liquid crystal molecules is aligned at a uniform inclination angle with respect to the substrate surface. A material that can align the alignment of liquid crystal molecules with a uniform pre-tilt angle is called an alignment film.

  Currently, there are two typical methods for preparing alignment films in the industry. The first method is a method of generating an inorganic substance into an inorganic film by vapor deposition. The second method is a method of aligning liquid crystal molecules in the friction direction by applying an organic film to the surface of the substrate and then aligning and rubbing the organic film using a soft cloth such as cotton, nylon or polyester. . This method is relatively simple and can be applied very easily on an industrial scale because uniform orientation can be obtained very easily. The polymer that can form the organic alignment film is, for example, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyethylene oxide (PEO), polyamic acid (PA), or polyimide (polyimide, PI). Polyimide is most often used as an alignment film material because it has properties such as chemical stability and thermal stability.

  Among them, since polyimide and polyamic acid have a large difference in solubility in water, N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) is usually used as a solvent. However, since N-methylpyrrolidone has high hygroscopicity, in the coating process, the solubility of polyimide or polyamic acid itself is poor, or too much moisture is contained in the aligning agent, resulting in uneven film development. Since polyimide and polyamic acid are deposited, a uniform and good liquid crystal alignment film cannot be obtained.

  The present invention provides a liquid crystal aligning agent that provides excellent printability and has properties such as excellent electrical properties and anti-hygroscopic properties.

  The present invention also provides a liquid crystal alignment film manufactured with the liquid crystal alignment agent and capable of maintaining excellent pretilt angle stability even under different process conditions.

  The present invention also provides a liquid crystal display element that includes the liquid crystal alignment film and achieves the object of improving the performance of the liquid crystal display element by having an effect such as a high voltage holding ratio.

  The present invention further provides a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display element capable of manufacturing a high-performance liquid crystal display element.

There is provided a liquid crystal aligning agent comprising a solvent containing pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1, wherein R is a C _{3 to} C ₁₂ branched hydrocarbon group.

In one embodiment of the present invention, R is a branched chain hydrocarbon radical of C ₃ -C _8.

In one embodiment of the present invention, R is a branched chain hydrocarbon radical of C ₃ -C _5.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, R is an alkyl group.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the proportion of the pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1 in the solvent is 0.5 wt% to 90 wt%.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the proportion of the pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1 in the solvent is 0.5 wt% to 50 wt%.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the liquid crystal aligning agent further includes a polymer including polyimide, polyamic acid, a copolymer of polyimide and polyamic acid, or a mixture of polyimide and polyamic acid.

  The present invention also provides a liquid crystal alignment film produced by applying the liquid crystal alignment agent on a substrate.

  The present invention also provides a liquid crystal display element including the liquid crystal alignment film.

  The present invention further provides a method for producing a liquid crystal display element, which comprises applying the liquid crystal aligning agent to a substrate and then baking the substrate to form a liquid crystal alignment film.

As described above, the liquid crystal aligning agent of the present invention sufficiently contains a polymer such as polyimide, polyamic acid, polyimide and polyamic acid by including a solvent having pyrrolidone of a C _{3 to} C ₁₂ branched chain hydrocarbon group. Not only can it be dissolved, but at the same time it can also reduce hygroscopicity and increase applicability. Therefore, since the liquid crystal alignment film of the present invention manufactured using this liquid crystal alignment agent can maintain excellent pretilt angle stability, the liquid crystal display element of the present invention having this liquid crystal alignment film has a voltage holding ratio. High, good display quality and short response time.

  In order to make the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with figures are described below.

It is the figure which showed the change of the pretilt angle of the liquid crystal display element of Experimental example 2 of this invention, and the comparative example 1 in a different heating process.

The embodiments of the present invention will be further described below with reference to embodiments. In this specification, unless it is specifically stated whether a group is substituted, the group may represent a substituted group or an unsubstituted group. For example, an “alkyl group” may be a substituted group or an unsubstituted group. Further, when a group is depicted by “C _x ”, this indicates that the main chain of the group has X carbon atoms.

  In the text, the structure of a compound is sometimes expressed by a skeleton formula. This type of display method can omit carbon atoms, hydrogen atoms and carbon-hydrogen bonds. Of course, when the functional group is clearly depicted in the structural formula, the description is based on the description.

  In the present specification, the range indicated by “a numerical value from another numerical value” is a general display method for avoiding listing all the numerical values within the range in the specification. Accordingly, a depiction for a particular numerical range is clearly stated in the specification, which is meant to include any numerical value within that numerical range and a relatively small numerical range limited by any numerical value within that numerical range. It is the same as the arbitrary numerical value and the relatively small numerical range. For example, the range of “temperature of 80 ° C. to 300 ° C.” includes the range of “temperature of 100 ° C. to 250 ° C.” regardless of whether other numerical values are listed in the specification.

  1st Embodiment of this invention provides the liquid crystal aligning agent containing the solvent containing the pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1. FIG. Among them, the pyrrolidone-based solvent has excellent solubility in polyamine polymers such as polyimide / polyamic acid having low solubility.

In the present embodiment, R is, for example, a C _{3 to} C ₁₂ branched hydrocarbon group. In general, the higher the number of carbon atoms in R, the better the anti-hygroscopic property, but the molecular contact area and the Van der Waals force between the molecules also increase, so the boiling point (boiling point) ) Is also high. When R is an alkyl group having a carbon number greater than 12, the boiling point becomes too high and the solvent becomes difficult to volatilize or the volatilization rate becomes slow. When R is an alkyl group having a carbon number smaller than 3, the anti-hygroscopic property is poor and the coating property is also poor. In addition, the inventor has shown that an unexpected property that a branched chain hydrocarbon group can increase anti-hygroscopicity and increase solubility at the same time by increasing the number of carbon atoms compared to a straight chain hydrocarbon group. Found to have. Considering the above factors together, more preferable R is, for example, a C _{3 to} C ₈ branched hydrocarbon group, and more preferable R is, for example, a C _{3 to} C ₅ branched chain carbonization. It is a hydrogen group.

  In this embodiment, R is an alkyl group. A carbon hydrogen group having the same number of carbon atoms can be used in a low temperature process because the boiling point is lowered by the alkyl group. More specifically, examples of R include isopropyl, neobutyl, and isobutyl. That is, in this embodiment, the pyrrolidone solvent represented by Formula 1 is, for example, specifically N-isopropyl-2-pyrrolidone, N-neobutyl-2-pyrrolidone, N-isobutyl-2-pyrrolidone (each of which is shown below). Formula 1a, Formula 1b, Formula 1c) and the like.

  In this embodiment, from the viewpoint of viscosity and volatility, the solid content of the liquid crystal aligning agent (ratio occupied by non-volatile substances in the composition) is more preferably 1 wt% to 10 wt%. is there. When the solid content of the liquid crystal aligning agent is lower than 1% by weight, the liquid crystal aligning film formed by applying the liquid crystal aligning agent becomes too thin to lower the liquid crystal aligning property. When the solid content of the liquid crystal aligning agent is higher than 10% by weight, the coating quality is affected.

  In the present invention, the solid component of the liquid crystal aligning agent includes, for example, a polymer, and the polymer described above may be any polymer having a liquid crystal aligning effect. In the present embodiment, the polymer described above is, for example, polyimide, polyamic acid, a copolymer of polyimide and polyamic acid, or a mixture of polyimide and polyamic acid. In the present embodiment, polyimide and polyamic acid are obtained, for example, by reacting diamine and tetracarboxylic dianhydride, and the copolymer and mixture described above are, for example, an arbitrary ratio of both polyimide and polyamic acid. A copolymer or mixture present in More specifically, for example, a polyimide-polyamic acid product is obtained by polymerizing a monoamine compound, a tetracarboxylic dianhydride, and a diamine compound in an organic solvent, and then partially ring-closing by a dehydration reaction. be able to. This will be described in more detail below.

<Diamine compound>

  In this embodiment, since the diamine compound to be used is not particularly limited, one or more diamine compounds may be used. Specific examples are as shown in Table 1, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

  When the compound mentioned above has an isomer, it may be an isomer of these compounds or a mixture thereof.

<Tetracarboxylic dianhydride>

  In this embodiment, since the tetracarboxylic dianhydride to be used is not particularly limited, one or more tetracarboxylic dianhydrides may be used. Specific examples are as shown in Table 2, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

  When the compound mentioned above has an isomer, it may be an isomer of these compounds or a mixture thereof.

<Synthesis of polyimide-polyamic acid>

  In this embodiment, the ratio of the tetracarboxylic dianhydride and diamine used for the synthesis reaction of polyimide-polyamic acid is, for example, an acid anhydride group of tetracarboxylic dianhydride with respect to a total of 1 equivalent of amino groups of diamine. The content of is 0.5 equivalents to 2 equivalents, and more preferably 0.7 equivalents to 1.5 equivalents.

  In this embodiment, the synthesis of polyimide-polyamic acid is completed in an organic solvent, and the organic solvent to be used is divided into an organic solvent having a relatively high solubility and an organic solvent having a relatively low solubility.

  The organic solvent having a relatively high solubility in the polyimide-polyamic acid includes a pyrrolidone solvent represented by Formula 1, and this kind of solvent may be used as a mixture of two or more kinds. : N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone, N, N-dimethylformamide, N, N-dimethylacetamide, N-methylcaprolactam, dimethyl sulfoxide, tetramethylurea, hexamethylphosphate triamide, γ -Butyrolactone and the like. In the present embodiment, the ratio of the pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1 in the solvent is more preferably 0.5 wt% to 90 wt%, and even more preferably 0.5 wt% to 90 wt%. 50% by weight. When the ratio of the pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1 in the solvent is 0.5 wt% to 50 wt%, the solubility of the solvent is further increased, and the amount of leveling agent used can be increased.

  An organic solvent having a relatively low solubility in polyimide-polyamic acid may be used by mixing with the above-mentioned organic solvent. However, it is assumed that the polyimide-polyamic acid can be uniformly dispersed in the solvent. Solvents with relatively low solubility: methylol, ethanol, isopropoxide, n-butanol, cyclohexanol, ethylene glycol, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, ethylene glycol diethyl Includes ether, diethyl ether, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, cyclohexanone, methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane, trichloromethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, benzene, toluene, xylene, n-hexane, n-heptane, n-octane, etc. It is. Considering the applicability of the liquid crystal aligning agent, more preferably, a solvent having a low surface tension, for example: ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, or the like is used. Two or more of the above solvents may be mixed and used.

In this embodiment, the formation of the polyimide-polyamic acid includes performing a dehydration ring closure reaction. The dehydration ring closure reaction is performed, for example, by the following method:
Method (1): A direct dehydration cyclization reaction is performed by heating. The reaction temperature is, for example, 50 ° C to 300 ° C, and more preferably 120 ° C to 230 ° C. When the reaction temperature is lower than 50 ° C., the dehydration ring closure reaction does not proceed.
Method (2): A dehydrating agent and a catalyst are added to perform a dehydration ring-closing reaction. The reaction temperature is, for example, −20 ° C. to 150 ° C., and more preferably 0 ° C. to 120 ° C. As the dehydrating agent, for example, an acid anhydride such as acetic anhydride, propionic anhydride, trifluoroacetic anhydride, etc. can be used, and the dose of the dehydrating agent is determined in view of the required ring closure rate, but more preferably Uses 0.01 to 20 mol of dehydrating agent for every 1 mol of the polyimide-polyamic acid repeating unit (that is, the repeating unit obtained by reacting acid anhydride and diamine). As the catalyst, for example, a tertiary amine such as triethylamine, pyridine, dimethylpyridine and the like can be used. More preferably, 0.01 mol to 10 mol of catalyst is used for each mol of the dehydrating agent. .

  The purification method of polyimide-polyamic acid is, for example: injection of a reaction solution of polyimide-polyamic acid into a large amount of solvent having relatively low solubility to obtain a precipitate, and then drying under reduced pressure to obtain polyimide-polyamic acid Thereafter, the polyimide-polyamic acid is dissolved in an organic solvent having a relatively low solubility and precipitated again, and this step is performed once or a plurality of times to purify the polyimide-polyamic acid. Finally, the polyimide-polyamic acid is dissolved in a solvent having a relatively high solubility.

  In this embodiment, if necessary, the liquid crystal aligning agent may further include additives such as an organic silane / siloxane compound and an epoxy compound.

  In this embodiment, the organic silane / siloxane compound is not particularly limited. For example: aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, aminopropyltriethoxysilane, vinylmethylsilane, N- (2-aminoethyl) -3-aminopropylmethyldimethoxysilane N- (2-aminoethyl) -3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane, vinyltriethoxysilane, 3-methacryloyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, 3-epoxypropyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, 3-epoxypropyloxypropylmethyldimethoxy Silane, 2- (3,4-epoxycyclohexyl) ethyltrimethoxysilane, 3-carbamidopropyltrimethoxysilane, 3-carbamidopropyltriethoxysilane, N-ethoxycarbonyl-3-aminopro Pyrtrimethoxysilane, N-ethoxycarbonyl-3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, N-triethoxysilylpropyltriethylenetriamine, N-trimethoxysilylpropyltriethylenetriamine, N-bis (oxyethylene) -3-aminopropyl Examples include trimethoxysilane and N-bis (oxyethylene) -3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane.

  By appropriately controlling the content of the organosilane / siloxane compound in the liquid crystal aligning agent, the adhesion of the liquid crystal aligning film to the substrate surface is improved under the condition that the required properties of the liquid crystal aligning film are not affected. can do. If the content of the organosilane / siloxane compound in the liquid crystal aligning agent is too large, the formed liquid crystal alignment film tends to cause a phenomenon of poor alignment. If the content of the organosiloxane compound in the liquid crystal aligning agent is too small, the liquid crystal alignment film to be formed tends to cause a phenomenon of poor friction and excessive grinding. Therefore, in this embodiment, the concentration of the organosilane / siloxane compound with respect to the total weight of the polymer contained in the liquid crystal aligning agent is more preferably 0.01% by weight to 5% by weight, and further preferably 0%. .1% to 3% by weight.

  In this embodiment, the epoxy compound is not particularly limited. For example: ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether, propylene glycol diglycidyl ether, tripropylene glycol diglycidyl ether, neopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether, 1,6-hexane glycol diglycidyl ether Glycerin diglycidyl ether, 2,2-dibromoneopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether, 1,3,5,6-tetraglycidyl-2,4-hexane glycol, N, N, N ′, N′-tetraglycidyl-m -Phenylxylene, 1,3-bis (N, N-diglycidylaminomethyl) cyclohexane, N, N, N ', N'-tetraglycidyl-4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethyl, 3- (N-allyl- N-glycidyl) ami Nopropyltrimethoxysilane, 3- (N, N-diglycidyl) aminopropyltrimethoxysilane and the like can be mentioned.

  By appropriately controlling the content of the epoxy compound in the liquid crystal aligning agent, it is possible to improve the adhesion of the liquid crystal aligning film to the substrate surface under the condition that the necessary properties of the liquid crystal aligning film are not affected. it can. If the content of the epoxy compound in the liquid crystal aligning agent is too large, the formed liquid crystal alignment film is liable to cause a poor alignment phenomenon. If the content of the epoxy compound in the liquid crystal aligning agent is too small, the formed liquid crystal alignment film tends to cause a phenomenon of poor friction or excessive grinding. Therefore, in this embodiment, the concentration of the epoxy compound with respect to the total weight of the liquid crystal aligning agent is more preferably 0.01% by weight to 3% by weight, and further preferably 0.1% by weight to 2% by weight. %.

  The second embodiment of the present invention provides a liquid crystal alignment film produced by applying the liquid crystal aligning agent described in the first embodiment of the present invention on a substrate and baking it.

  In general, the thickness of the liquid crystal alignment film formed by the above-described method is more preferably 0.005 μm to 0.5 μm. The film thickness of the liquid crystal alignment film is usually adjusted based on the viscosity of the liquid crystal aligning agent and the coating method of the liquid crystal aligning agent. The thickness of the liquid crystal alignment film can be measured using a commonly used film thickness measuring device such as a step meter and an ellipsometer.

  In the present embodiment, any currently known substrate can be used as the substrate, and more preferably a substrate that can withstand the processing conditions described later. For example: a plastic substrate, a glass epoxy resin substrate, a glass substrate, a ceramic substrate, a metal substrate, etc. can be mentioned.

  The material of the plastic substrate is, for example: thermosetting resin (for example, epoxy resin, phenol resin, polyimide resin, polyester resin, etc.), thermoplastic resin (for example, phenoxy resin, polyether sulfone, polysulfone, polyphenylene sulfone) Etc.).

  Examples of the material of the ceramic substrate include: aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, zirconia, silicon, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, and the like.

  Examples of the material of the glass substrate include: soda glass, potash glass, borosilicate glass, quartz glass, aluminosilicate glass, lead glass, and the like.

  Examples of the material of the metal substrate include: aluminum, zinc, copper and the like.

  The substrate may have a structure in which two or more layers of the above-described plastic substrate, ceramic substrate, metal substrate, and the like are laminated. Of course, it may be a substrate having a patterned transparent conductive film.

  In this embodiment, examples of the coating method include: roller coating method, spin coating method, printing method, and the like, and the liquid crystal aligning agent can be coated on the substrate by these methods.

  In the present embodiment, the baking method is, for example, heat baking, and the heat baking method is, for example: a method of performing heat treatment in an oven or an infrared furnace, or a method of performing heat treatment on a heat plate Etc. By heating and baking, the organic solvent in the liquid crystal aligning agent can be removed, and the polyamic acid can be subjected to a dehydration ring-closing reaction. In the present embodiment, the temperature of the heat baking is more preferably 80 ° C. to 300 ° C., further preferably 100 ° C. to 240 ° C., and most preferably 120 ° C. to 220 ° C.

  The third embodiment of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display element including a liquid crystal alignment film formed by applying the liquid crystal aligning agent described in the first embodiment of the present invention to a substrate and baking the substrate by heating. I will provide a.

  First, in this embodiment, the substrate is, for example, a substrate for a liquid crystal display element, and the material can be, for example, the material described in the second embodiment of the present invention. Moreover, although the method quoted in 2nd Embodiment of this invention can be used for the application | coating method and a heat baking method, you may use the other commonly used method.

  Subsequently, in this embodiment, after the liquid crystal alignment film is formed by heat baking, the liquid crystal alignment film is aligned with liquid crystal molecules by, for example, rubbing with a roller in which a nylon or cotton fabric is wound. Can have sex.

  In this embodiment, a sealing agent is applied on one substrate having the above-described liquid crystal alignment film, and a gap substance is sprayed on another substrate having the above-described liquid crystal alignment film. The liquid crystal display element is preliminarily formed by combining the liquid crystal in a direction perpendicular to or parallel to the friction direction and injecting liquid crystal into the gap and then sealing the injection hole. Since the process for completing the subsequent liquid crystal display element is well known to those skilled in the art, the description thereof is omitted here.

  The fourth embodiment of the present invention provides a liquid crystal display device including the liquid crystal alignment film described in the second embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the liquid crystal display element manufacturing method uses, for example, the liquid crystal display element manufacturing method described in the third embodiment of the present invention.

<Experiment>

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described more specifically using comparative examples and experimental examples, but the present invention is not limited to these experimental examples.

<Synthesis of polyamic acid>

  Synthesis Example 1 and Synthesis Example 2

  Diamine and tetracarboxylic dianhydride are sequentially added into N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (chemical structure and quantity as shown in Tables 1 and 3) to produce a solution with a solid content of 20% by weight. And reacted at a temperature of 40 ° C. to 60 ° C. for 4 to 6 hours to obtain a polyamic acid polymer. And it refine | purified with the solvent (for example, methanol or water) with low solubility with respect to a polyamic acid polymer, and the polymer A1 and the polymer A2 were obtained by drying under reduced pressure.

  Synthesis Example 3 and Synthesis Example 4

  Diamine and tetracarboxylic dianhydride are sequentially added into N-isopropyl-2-pyrrolidone (chemical structure and quantity as shown in Tables 1 and 3) to produce a solution with a solid content of 20% by weight. And reacted at a temperature of 40 ° C. to 60 ° C. for 4 to 6 hours to obtain a polyamic acid polymer. And it refine | purified with the solvent (for example, methanol or water) with low solubility with respect to a polyamic acid polymer, and polymer A3 and polymer A4 were obtained by drying under reduced pressure.

  Synthesis example 5

  Diamine and tetracarboxylic dianhydride are added in turn into N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (as shown in Table 3) to produce a solution with a solid content of 20% by weight at a temperature of 40 ° C to 60 ° C. For 4 to 6 hours to obtain a polyamic acid polymer. Then, pyridine and acetic anhydride are added to the obtained polyamic acid polymer (the addition amount is determined by the imidization rate), and the dehydration / ring-closure reaction is performed at 100 to 110 ° C. for 3 to 4 hours. The resulting solution was precipitated using methanol and purified with methanol. Finally, the polymer B1 was obtained by collecting and drying under reduced pressure.

  Synthesis Example 6

  Polymer B2 was obtained in the same manner as in Synthesis Example 5 except that N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone was replaced with N-isopropyl-2-pyrrolidone in Synthesis Example 6 (as shown in FIG. 3).

  The polymer solid was dissolved in a solvent to prepare a solution having a solid content of 6% by weight, filtered with a filter having a diameter of 0.2 μm, and the collected filtrate was used as a liquid crystal aligning agent. In the liquid crystal aligning agent, the composition of the polymer solid and the composition of the solvent are as shown in Table 4, respectively. It should be noted that in the <Experiment> part, one of the reasons for using polyamic acid as the polymer material of the alignment film is that polyamic acid is an alignment film material that is usually used. The solubility of the acid is relatively low. Since the solvent prepared in each experiment has already been demonstrated to be applicable to polyamic acid, it can be applied to other commonly used alignment film materials.

  A liquid crystal aligning agent was applied on a glass substrate with a roller printer and dried on a heating plate at 220 ° C. for 12 minutes to form a thin film (ie, liquid crystal alignment film) having a thickness of about 0.05 μm. And after apply | coating a sealing agent on the board | substrate which has the above-mentioned liquid crystal aligning film, and spraying a gap | interval substance on another board | substrate which has the above-mentioned liquid crystal aligning film, two board | substrates are made perpendicular or parallel to each other's friction direction. The liquid crystal material (ZLI-4792 from Merck) was injected into the gap between the combinations, and then the injection hole was sealed to form a liquid crystal display element.

  The obtained liquid crystal aligning agent and liquid crystal display element were evaluated by the following evaluation methods.

<Evaluation method>

(1) Application property of liquid crystal aligning agent (A) A liquid crystal aligning agent is applied on an indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate by a printing method and baked in an oven to determine whether the film surface is flat. Or observe if there are color spots. If there is no color spot, it is judged to be good, and if there is color spot, it is judged to be bad.
(B) A non-uniform area (hollow area) of the film thickness at the edge of the film surface is measured. When it is smaller than 100 μm, it is excellent, when it is 100 μm to 150 μm, it is acceptable, and when it is higher than 150 μm, it is inferior.
(2) Whitening phenomenon of liquid crystal aligning agent A liquid crystal aligning agent is applied on an ITO substrate by a printing method, left to stand for 10 minutes, baked, and observed with an optical microscope for the presence of a precipitation phenomenon. When there is no precipitation, it is marked as ◯, and when there is precipitation, it is marked as x.
(3) Stability under different process conditions with different pretilt angles A liquid crystal aligning agent is applied onto an ITO substrate by a printing method, and baked in an oven at 200 ° C. or 220 ° C. for 12 minutes or 25 minutes to obtain a liquid crystal display element (liquid crystal material: Merck ZLI-4792) is composed and the pretilt angle at the center of the element is measured by the crystal rotation method. The results are as shown in FIG.
(4) Alignment film friction property A liquid crystal aligning agent is applied onto an ITO substrate by a printing method and baked in an oven. Subsequently, a roller rotation speed of 1000 (rotation / minute) and a plate movement speed of 60 (mm / second) are obtained. Then, orientation friction is performed at an intrusion degree of 0.6 μm, and the surface after printing is visually observed with a polarizing microscope for scratches and debris.
(5) Voltage holding ratio Measurement conditions: An AC voltage (5 V, 60 Hz, pulse width 60 μsec) is applied to the liquid crystal display element at an environmental temperature of 60 ° C., and the voltage holding ratio of the liquid crystal display element is measured. If it is 90% or more, it is good, and if it is 90% or less, it is bad.

  The above evaluation results are recorded in Table 4.

  In Table 4, a is γ-butyrolactone, b is butyl cellosolve, c is N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, d is N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidone, and e is N-isopropyl-2- Pyrrolidone and f is N-neobutyl-2-pyrrolidone.

  As can be seen from Table 4, the liquid crystal aligning agent of the present invention is very excellent in coating properties, and the formed liquid crystal aligning film not only has a flat film surface and no color spots, but also has a film surface edge. Excellent. In addition, no whitening occurs after baking. In addition, the liquid crystal display element of the present invention not only maintains a good voltage holding ratio, but also has excellent friction properties.

  The tilt angles of different heating processes were measured for the liquid crystal display elements of Example 2 and Comparative Example 1, and the results are shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the change in the pretilt angle of the liquid crystal display element of the present invention is within 0.5 degrees, and the liquid crystal display element of the present invention has very good pretilt angle stability and is heat treated. It can be seen that the present invention can be applied to the manufacturing process of various liquid crystal display elements because the working temperature range is relatively wide.

As described above, the present invention discloses a liquid crystal aligning agent, a liquid crystal alignment film thereof, a liquid crystal display element including the liquid crystal alignment film, and a manufacturing method thereof. This liquid crystal aligning agent not only improves the solubility and storage capacity of polyimide, polyamic acid, etc. by including a solvent containing pyrrolidone (pyrrolidone has a C _{3 to} C ₁₂ branched hydrocarbon group). Since the hygroscopicity and the boiling point are relatively low, it is possible to increase the coating property and reduce the area where printing is not uniform, and to obtain a good film surface even in a low temperature process. Therefore, the liquid crystal alignment film produced with this liquid crystal aligning agent has good pretilt angle stability under different process conditions (for example, temperature, time, etc.) and also provides very excellent friction properties. Therefore, the liquid crystal display element including this liquid crystal alignment film can maintain characteristics such as a good voltage holding ratio, a short reaction time, a large contrast, and a long lifetime. Therefore, the present invention can be applied to liquid crystal display elements such as TN, STN, VA, IPS, etc. More broadly, the present invention can be applied to wrist watches, mobile phones, industrial liquid crystal panels, computer screens, notebook personal computers. It can be applied to a display device such as a liquid crystal television.

  As described above, the present invention has been disclosed by the embodiments. However, the present invention is not intended to limit the present invention, and is within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention so that those skilled in the art can easily understand. Since such changes and modifications can be made naturally, the scope of patent protection must be defined based on the scope of the claims and the equivalent area.

Claims (10)

A solvent containing pyrrolidone represented by the following formula 1,
In the formula, R is a liquid crystal aligning agent in which R is a C _{3 to} C ₁₂ branched hydrocarbon group. The liquid crystal aligning agent according to claim 1, wherein R is a C _{3 to} C ₈ branched hydrocarbon group. The liquid crystal aligning agent according to claim 1, wherein R is a C _{3 to} C ₅ branched chain hydrocarbon group.   R is an alkyl group, The liquid crystal aligning agent of any one of Claims 1-3.   The liquid crystal aligning agent of Claim 1 whose ratio which the said pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1 accounts in the said solvent is 0.5 to 90 weight%.   The liquid crystal aligning agent of Claim 1 whose ratio which the said pyrrolidone represented by Formula 1 accounts in the said solvent is 0.5 to 50 weight%.   The liquid crystal aligning agent of Claim 1 which further contains the polymer containing a polyimide, polyamic acid, the copolymer of a polyimide and polyamic acid, or the mixture of a polyimide and polyamic acid.   The liquid crystal aligning film manufactured by apply | coating the liquid crystal aligning agent of any one of Claims 1-7 on a board | substrate.   A liquid crystal display element comprising the liquid crystal alignment film according to claim 8.   The manufacturing method of a liquid crystal display element including apply | coating the liquid crystal aligning agent of any one of Claims 1-7 to a board | substrate, heat-baking the said board | substrate, and forming a liquid crystal aligning film.