Influence of enhanced curing temperature of epoxy monomers structure on the electro-optical properties and morphology of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal films

The effect of enhanced curing temperature of epoxy monomers structure on the electro-opticalproperties and morphology of Polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films has been studied. PDLC films were prepared by polymerization induced separation (PIPS) method with nematic liquid crystal (LC) content as low as 40 wt% and the electro-optical (E-O) properties were carefully investigated. To accomplish this, epoxy curable monomers structure with different molar ratio of two mixtures was examined in PDLC films. The LC domain size in the PDLC films decreased at first and then increased with the gradual raise of the curing temperature with lower LC content. Meanwhile, the E-O properties of the PDLC film depended strongly on the LC droplet size. The detailed characteristics and morphology of polymer network of PDLC films were analyzed by employing liquid crystal device (LCD) parameters tester and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).It was found that the LC domain size of the polymer network could be regulated by adjusting the curing temperature, structure and composition ratio of curable epoxy monomers, then the electro-optical of PDLC films could be optimized; which is beneficial to a novel generation of materials with sophisticated properties and new effects ready for use in various areas of modern technologies