光刻法制备聚合物/液晶光栅

将明胶涂覆在表面经过取向处理的带有ITO电极的玻璃基板上,以紫外灯为光源,通过光掩模法,使明胶在光场的引发下发生光化学反应,样品显影刻蚀处理后呈栅状,将液晶注入光栅盒中,形成聚合物／液晶光栅。该光栅衍射效率可利用电场调控。采用He—Ne激光器对所制样品进行测试,结果表明,所制样品的栅结构较好。避免了液晶与聚合物相分离的不完全性和栅条边缘不整齐的现象。制得的光栅其第一衍射级次的开关比为87：1,显示了较好的开关能力。     

聚合物分散液晶相分离及其膜的光电特性

通过选择适宜的制膜材料及采用光聚合的用引发相分离法对制膜条件（如光强、温度等）的精确控制，实现了聚合物具有三维网络结构的相分离基体膜。由液晶分子形成的向列液晶微粒被独立地分散在基体网络内。这种薄膜具有１５Ｖ的饱合驱动电压，３０个以上的对比度，几个毫秒的响应速度。     

聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯基网络稳定铁电液晶的制备及性能

通过热引发聚合制备了聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯基网络稳定铁电液晶(PNSFLC)材料。采用热台偏光显微镜观察了由不同含量的甲基丙烯酸甲酯(MMA)制备的PNSFLC样品的网络织构。采用紫外分光光度计在0～30V的电压条件下研究了PNSFLC样品的电光性能。采用阿贝折射仪在0～70℃范围内,研究了PSFLC的折射率随温度变化的关系。结果表明:随着(MMA)含量的增加,聚合物网络结构由稀疏至致密。当MMA含量为7%时,所制备的PNSFLC样品的电光响应比小分子液晶的电光性能成线性好,且该MMA含量的PNSFLC样品的热稳定性较好。     

聚合物结构对聚合物网络稳定液晶薄膜电光性能的影响

用带有联苯结构的双丙烯酸酯和单丙烯酸酯作为单体,采用紫外光引发聚合诱导相分离法制备了聚合物网络稳定液晶(PSLC)薄膜。研究了不同液晶含量、固化时间、单体结构、取向层对PSLC膜电光性能的影响。结果表明,随着液晶含量的增加,样品的关态透光率(TOFF)随之增大,驱动电压则呈减小趋势;相对而言,随固化时间的增加,样品的TOFF则降低。在PI作取向层时,由双丙烯酸酯单体制备的样品表现出了较高的TOFF,而由单丙烯酸酯单体制得的样品,因其聚合物网络结构的不稳定性,在较低电压情况下就出现了"变形"的电光曲线。     

单体BAB6和手性剂含量对聚合物网络稳定液晶电光性能的影响

采用单体4,4′-二[6-(丙烯酰氧基)己氧基]联苯(BAB6)和胆甾相液晶混合光固化,制得聚合物网络稳定液晶(PSLC)薄膜。利用紫外可见分光光度计、响应时间测试装置和扫描电子显微镜(SEM),研究了单体BAB6和手性剂质量分数对PSLC薄膜电光性能和网络微观形貌的影响。结果表明,随着BAB6质量分数增加,PSLC薄膜的聚合物网眼尺寸变小,透过率降低,饱和电压增加,响应时间缩短;随着手性剂质量分数增加,聚合物网眼尺寸缩小,液晶畴变小,驱动电压增加,响应时间进一步下降。当液晶∶单体∶手性剂的质量比为100∶5∶10时,制得了电光性能优良,响应时间为2ms的PSLC薄膜。     

溶剂法制备聚合物分散液晶膜

用溶剂法制备了聚合物分散液晶膜。采用偏光显微镜、扫描电子显微镜和电光仪对相分离和聚合物分散液晶材料的电光性能作了初步探讨。研究结果表明,升温速度和聚合物含量对PDLC膜的相分离结构和响应电压有显著的影响。     

聚合物分散液晶的相行为

针对聚合物分散液晶(PDLC)二元体系进行了研究,主要包括外加直流电场下制备的PDLC的相图研究以及PDLC形成过程中相分离情况。在PDLC制备过程中由于外加直流电场对小分子液晶的作用,使液晶在此二元结构中的清亮点发生变化。结果表明,直流电场的引入导致PDLC中液晶清亮点升高。相分离行为主要是跟踪PDLC形成过程中由于小分子液晶与高分子链段之间的排斥作用而引起的相分离,研究了不同条件下PDLC相分离的快慢。     

聚合物分散液晶电控全息变间距光栅

本文报道了一种基于聚合物分散液晶的电控全息变间距光栅。采用柱面波和平面波干涉得到具有变间距的干涉条纹,并将此条纹记录于聚合物分散液晶材料中。实验分析研究了该光栅的空间频率、衍射特性和电场调控特性。光栅的空间频率变化范围和趋势与理论计算公式相匹配,实验结果表明光栅衍射效率与曝光光强和时间存在一定的关系。空间频率在530 mm-1~650 mm-1内的光栅衍射效率能达到70%以上。光栅的阈值电压为2.4 V/μm,上升沿和下降沿时间分别为300 μs和750 μs。该光栅不但具备了普通变间距光栅的优点,而且还具备了聚合物分散液晶的电场调控的特性,在光纤通信,光电探测及光谱探测等领域具有一定的应用前景。     

Holographic grating formation in PVB doped polymer dispersed liquid crystal based on PUA

Different contents of poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) have been incorporated into the conventional holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) composition based on liquid crystal mixture and polyurethane acrylate (PUA) with a particular composition. As the PVB content is increased, the hardness, elastic modulus and thermal stability of polymer matrix are improved because of the entanglement by PVB, which has a relatively high molecular weight compared with PUA oligomer. Diffraction efficiency is enhanced with the addition of PVB except for HPDLC film with 10 wt.% PVB owing to augmentation of the phase separation between polymer and LC, caused by the increase of elasticity of the polymer matrix. However, the increase in viscosity on adding PVB produces a slow saturation time and coalescence of the LC droplet, showing a lower diffraction efficiency at the PVB content of 10 wt.% than at 0 wt.%.     

Effects of magnetic fields on flexural properties of a longitudinal polymer liquid crystal

We have placed a copolymer of poly(ethylene terephthalate + 0.6 mole fraction of p-hydroxybenzoic acid) in magnetic fields up to 1.8 Tesla, heated it to the molten state (at several temperatures in the range 240–315 °C) and cooled to the room temperature under the field to maintain the orientation so acquired. Then the extent of the orientation has been determined with an anisotropy parameter a based on the ultrasound critical–angle reflectometry (UCR); the parameter is calculated from the ratio of the maximum velocity to the minimum velocity of the reflected wave at critical incidence angles at which total internal reflection occurs. A significant orientation effect is found. As expected, anisotropy increases with time, magnetic field strength and to a lesser extent with the temperature. Large changes in the extent of the anisotropy are connected to phase transitions determined before. The Freederickscz transition is observed. The influence of the orientation effect on the mechanical properties of samples has been established by flexural tests. The strengthening observed has been explained using an extension of the statistical–mechanical theory of Flory in terms of channeling of flexible sequences in the polymer liquid crystals (PLC) and changes in phase structures under the magnetic field. The strengthening effect depends strongly on the presence, size and distribution of liquid crystal (LC) islands in the material. The islands act similarly as dispersoids in other types of materials. Maxima of the strengthening effect with respect to the alignment are found and related to the size of LC-rich islands in the structure. Electronic Publication     

Electrooptical properties and microstructure of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal doped with various reinforcing materials

Different types of reinforcing material, such as hydrophilic silica (Aerosil 200), (1-propylmethacrylate)-heptaisobutyl-substituted PSS (POSS-1), octavinyl-substituted PSS (POSS-8), octamethyl-substituted PSS (POSS-octa), and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) were incorporated into a conventional polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) system to enhance electrooptical properties by increasing phase separation, resulting from increasing the gel content and decreasing the viscosity of the mixture. The mixtures with POSS-1, POSS-octa, and Aerosil 200 show lower viscosity than the neat mixture, caused by the weak interaction of monomer molecules because of inserting these particles into the monomer chains, whereas the mixtures with POSS-8 and PDMS show an increase in viscosity. The PDLC film with POSS-1 represents the lowest off-transmittance value because the gel content is above 94% and the droplet size of the LC is optimal. However, when the gel content is decreased, the droplet size of the LC in the film becomes large because of unreactive monomer flowing into the LC, giving rise to the increase in off-transmittance value.     

Morphological control and polarization switching in polymer dispersed liquid crystal materials and devices

Liquid crystals dispersed in polymer systems constitute novel class of optical materials. The precise control of the liquid crystal droplet morphology in the polymer matrix is essentially required to meet the prerequisites of display device. Experiments have been carried out to investigate and identify the material properties and processing conditions required for the precise control of the droplet morphology of the dispersed liquid crystal systems. Polarization switching has been studied. Aligned liquid crystal dispersed systems showed higher polarization over unaligned ones.     

Effects of polymer viscosity on the polymerization switching and electro-optical properties of unaligned liquid crystal/UV curable polymer composites

Polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystal composite films consisting of varying polymer viscosities were prepared by polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) technique. It was found that polymer viscosity influences the polarization switching and optical responses. A polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystal film of low polymer viscosity shows faster switching, however a higher optical transmission at ~ 70% was observed in a higher polymer viscosity film.     

Characteristics of di- and tri-block copolymers: polymer disperse liquid crystal display

In the reported work the block copolymers are used in the polymer disperse liquid crystal (PDLC) films. The present work has been performed to investigate the effect of block copolymer addition and block ratios on the PDLC characteristics. From our experimental finding, addition of block copolymer in PDLC shows variation in droplet size, electro-optical properties, extent of phase separation, and phase transition temperature. These finding indicate the alteration in solubility parameters of solutions with the addition of block copolymers. Moreover, the tri-block copolymer shows enlarge droplet size, enhancement in the degree of phase separation, and predict improvement in electro-optical properties, as compared to di-block copolymer. Similarly upon such comparison, the study suggests the tri-block copolymer have a relative lower molecular interaction with the liquid crystal molecules.     

交流电场促进相分离法制备聚合物分散液晶

在单体与液晶相分离的过程以及单体固化的过程中施加交流电，得到液晶微滴尺寸和排列规则的PDLC膜。采用偏振红外光谱法对电场作用下液晶分子的重新取向进行了研究。结果表明：非工作状态下，液晶微滴的分子光轴处于无序态；工作状态下，分子光轴能够达到较高的有向度。     

Processing conditions, morphology and properties of a polycarbonate + a thermotropic polymer liquid crystal blend

We have investigated phase structure – properties relationships of polycarbonate (PC) + a polymer liquid crystal (PLC) blends processed in a twin-screw extruder at several conditions. The PLC is PET/0.82 PHB – a copolyester of poly(ethylene terephtalate) and p -hydroxybenzoic acid. For comparison the blend was additionally extruded in a wide range of shear rates in a capillary rheometer at two different spinning rates and compression-molded. The blend processed in the rheometer exhibits lower values of modulus and tensile strength than the blend extruded due to destruction of the initial orientation and dispersion level gained during extrusion. The orientation of PLC-rich islands increases up to the shear rate of 50–100 s^–1, whereas deformation at higher shear rates exhibits a droplet–breakup phenomenon, confirmed by SEM micrographs. The rheological measurements (oscillation mode) evidence a high shear thinning of the PLC. By contrast, the influence of the deformation rate on the viscosity for PC and the blend is negligible, suggesting also a low interaction level in the interfacial area. This conclusion was confirmed by dynamic mechanical measurements. As expected, our experiments prove that structure and properties of the blend are affected by processing (shear and elongation) conditions. Increasing shear rate leads to elongation of dispersed domains but exceeding critical values can lead to droplet breakup and destruction of created structure. The unique morphology created during extrusion can be destroyed during additional processing (in rheometer). Formation of fibrils is also dependent on additional treatment – spinning speed. Optimized spinning speed can lead to 50% increase in stiffness of the blend. Electronic Publication