In this study, we want to realize the influence of temperature and mechanical rubbing on the surface free energy and wettability of liquid crystal(LC) of polyimide(PI) thin films. In different surface conditions, we use the LC that was dropped on to the surface of the sample and become stable to explore the wettability of the surface. We also observe the phenomenon and influence of the LC on the PI with increasing surface temperature. We utilize hot stage and contact angle measuring system to obtain the surface free energy to realize the surface of the PI and measure the contact angle of LC in different temperature to realize the wettability of the PI. We found that the increase of the surface temperature leads to the decrease in the surface free energy of the PI and the contact angle of the FLC on the PI. The increase of the surface temperature causes the stabilization in the surface polar energy and the LC contact angle of the unrubbed PI. But the increase of the surface temperature causes the increase in the surface polar energy and the decrease of the LC contact angle of the rubbed PI. In the anti-parallel-direction to the rubbing direction the rubbed PI exhibits better wettability.

Mechanical Rubbing still is an useful alignment method in this time. In this study, we investigated the surface wettability of rubbed polyimide(PI) thin film. By using contact angle measurements, we found the surface free energy have strong connection with surface roughness in different rubbing times. We also discussed the wettability of rubbed PI thin film in parallel and anti-parallel of rubbing direction. We found that if we rubbed PI thin film 3 times in 0.3mm depth then the structure of SSFLC is more uniform than the alignment effect of other rubbing times and we found that the values of polar energy in parallel and anti-parallel of rubbing direction are very close. In the other part of study, we degenerated the polyimide before coating. We found that the reflection anisotropic spectrum(RAS) have a blueshift and the rubbing strength will be more influential in the wettability of PI thin film than the film with no degenerate process.