The effect of voltage controlled orientation order of liquid crystals in non-acrylic polymer dispersed liquid crystals films

The nematic liquid crystals (LCs) are randomly dispersed material with random orientation order in polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films. The LCs change their orientation from random to vertical as electric field is applied. This transformation of orientation order of nematic liquid crystals in the PDLC films is controlled by many factors operating simultaneously. For instance, some factors like the internal forces of attractions among the neighboring LC molecules, anchoring with polymeric matrix, ITO glass boundaries, and chemical structures of the materials are less studied. The learning of extent of vertical orientation of liquid crystal droplets in an electric field is essential to attain optimum electro optical properties of PDLCs. In this finding, bipolar and radial LCs droplets with random orientation have been observed in non-acrylic polymeric media. It is learned that with small increase of contents of external material, the extent of vertical orientation has been varied intensely. The extent of vertical orientation of LCs molecules increases as the contents of external non-acrylic polymeric material decreased. For this study, the orientations of LCs with respect to material type/contents, external applied force, and restoration of electric filed as hysteresis have been studied in details.     

Morphology,electro-optical and dielectric properties of polymer network liquid crystals in visible wavelengths

The correlations among electrical, optical properties and polymer morphologies of polymer network liquid crystals (PNLCs) constructed with various curing parameters are investigated. The experimental results indicate that high UV curing intensity, low curing temperature and high monomer-dopant concentration reduce the sizes of liquid crystal (LC) domains, thereby decreasing field-off response time and light scattering and increasing phase retardation of the PNLC cells. Photoinitiator concentration affects the LC domain size as well. For instance, increase in photoinitiator concentration results in the acceleration of polymerisation and thus decreases LC domain size. This effect increases driving voltages of the PNLC cells. Notably, excessive amounts of photoinitiator increases the LC domain size of the PNLC cell. Furthermore, dielectric measurement reveals that decrease in the LC domain size generally increases the dielectric relaxation frequency of the PNLC cells. When the LC domain size is small enough, the dielectric relaxation frequency of the PNLC cell is further dominated by the monomer concentration owing to the increased densities of polymer networks that facilitate the alignment of LC molecules.     

Discontinuous change in the helical pitch of cholesteric liquid crystals by photoisomerization of a chiral azobenzene molecule

This paper describes the discontinuous change in the helical pitch of a cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) by means of the photoisomerization of chiral azobenzene molecules under homogenous alignment conditions. A mixture of E44, R811 and Azo was prepared in the ratio 68/28/4, respectively. R811 and Azo have opposite twisting abilities such that they induce right- and left-handed helices, respectively when added to E44. The mixture was injected into a glass cell having a 2 or 5?µm cell gap, and treated for homogeneous molecular orientation. The wavelength of selective reflection from the ChLC was shifted to shorter wavelengths by the trans-cis photoisomerization of Azo. The change in the helical pitch was not only discontinuous, but also dependent on the cell thickness. The discontinuous change in the helical pitch was estimated to be almost the same as the half turn of the helical pitch in each cell gap, and was dependent on the number of helical half pitches in the glass cell. The homogeneous alignment condition affects the photochemical change in the helical structure of the ChLC system.     

偶氮型液晶高分子的研究及应用

偶氮液晶高分子由于其具有特殊的光致异构和光致变色等光学性质,在光信息贮存材料、光开关材料和非线性光学设备材料等领域具有巨大的应用潜力,近年来得到了国内外研究者的广泛关注。本文概述了偶氮型液晶高分子的结构特征,详细介绍了主链型偶氮液晶高分子、侧链型偶氮液晶高分子、树枝状偶氮液晶高分子以及星型偶氮液晶高分子的研究现状及在光储存、光开关及光调制偏振片等方面的应用进展,指出了存在的问题和研究方向。     

Computer simulation of liquid crystals

Summary We review recent progress in the computer simulation of liquid crystals, with special emphasis on hard particle models. Surprisingly, the simplest molecular models, taking account only of molecular size and shape, are sufficient to generate a wide variety of liquid crystalline phases, closely analogous to those observed in real life. Thermodynamic stability of different phases is very sensitive to shape, and presumably will also be sensitive to further details of intermolecular interactions as they are incorporated into the model. Realistic atom-atom potential models of liquid crystals are available, but the associated simulations are quite expensive. Thus, while idealized models may be used to study quite general, fundamental properties of mesophases, the modelling of specific liquid crystal systems in a realistic way remains a great challenge. Progress continues to be made on both these fronts.     

Switchable anti-peeping film for liquid crystal displays from polymer dispersed liquid crystals

Liquid crystals displays (LCDs) currently dominate the display market, wherein a wide viewing angle is considered as one of the most important characteristics. However, for LCDs with wide viewing angles, some private information inevitably becomes more visible; thus, an LCD with a switchable viewing angle has attracted greater interest. Here, we report a novel switchable viewing angle film that can make the viewing angle of an LCD electrically switchable between ±30° and ±60°, i.e. between an anti-peeping mode and a share mode, by 5.0 V is turned on and off, respectively. The response time necessary to change between the modes is in milliseconds. It is believed that it has potential applications in LCDs with high quality.     

Monte Carlo simulations of a liquid crystal copolymer in the solid state

The condensed phase of the alternating copolyester of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (HBA) and 2-hydroxy-6-naphthoic acid (HNA) is investigated by studying the room temperature packing arrangement of the copolymer chains. A molecular modeling methodology is employed with a Monte Carlo sampling of the configurational phase space. Realistic poly(HBA-alt-HNA) polymer chains are represented by an explicit atom representation of the HBA/HNA dimers. States are sampled from the NVT ensemble using a sampling scheme consisting of (1) valence and torsional variations, (2) rigid body rotations of the chain about the chain axis, and (3) rigid body translations of the chain. The effect of chain packing on the conformation of chains, as well as the relative intra- and intermolecular orientations of aromatic rings, is investigated. Correlation of chain positioning along the chain axis is dominated by aromatic rings maintaining a center-to-center plane of registry. These layers of aromatic units pack with a preference for edge-to-face orientations in a herringbone-type pattern and have an intermolecular ring angle between the pairs of aromatic rings in the unit cell that is ca. 68°. The aromatic rings, on average, are rotated 38° out from the b–c plane. The phenylene rings of these copolyesters are less restricted in their relative orientation in comparison to the naphthalene rings. Intramolecular orientational probability density distributions indicate a preference for staggering the successive aromatic rings along the chain, with a staggering angle of ca. 66°. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36: 727–741, 1998     

Time‐dependent deformation of structurally chiral polymer networks in stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals

Polymerization of crosslinkable liquid crystal monomers in chiral liquid crystalline media stabilizes the phase and enables distinct electro‐optic properties relative to small‐molecule analogs. Particularly interesting are cases where the polymerization forms a crosslinked polymer network that maintains a “structural” chirality. Recent reports have employed this methodology to realize a diverse set of electro‐optic responses in polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals (PSCLCs) including reflection bandwidth broadening, reflection wavelength tuning, and dynamic scattering modes. It has been proposed that the mechanism at the root of these electro‐optic responses is an ion‐mediated, electromechanical deformation of the stabilizing and structurally chiral polymer network. In an effort to better understand the nature of these deformations, here we have characterized the electro‐optic response of PSCLCs with different polymer concentrations and crosslink densities. The dynamic response of PSCLCs to electric fields exhibits a time‐dependent behavior reminiscent of the creep of polymeric materials to mechanical deformations. The electro‐optic response can be described as the superposition of two contributions: the fast deformation of a relatively soft component of the polymer network (1–2 s) and the slower (10–20 s) deformation of a harder component. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018 , 56, 1087–1093     

Exploitation of orientation of liquid crystals 5CB and DSCG near surfaces to detect low protein concentration

We report the alignment of 4-cyano-4-pentylbiphenyl (5CB), a thermotropic liquid crystal (LC), and disodium chromo glycate (DSCG), a lyotropic LC, on the hydrophobic head group containing dimethyloctadecyl[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]ammonium chloride (DMOAP) and hydrophilic amine head group. Based on the texture observed using a polarised microscope for modified surfaces, we propose the alignment of the LCs on the modified surfaces. It is further supported by Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) data of the corresponding system. Next, the texture under a polarised microscope for the LCs on protein bovine serum albumin adsorbed over the amine and DMOAP surfaces was observed. The difference in texture of LCs over the proteins depends on its concentration in solution. The difference is due to the amount of adsorbed proteins present on the surface. Above a critical amount of protein at the surface, the LCs show homeotropic arrangement.     

Effects of the fluorinated liquid crystal molecules on the electro-optical properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal films

The different fluorinated liquid crystal (LC) molecules doped to E8 were used as LC component to prepare polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films. The mass fraction of the LC mixture is fixed 50.0 wt%. Results indicate that doping 8.0 wt% fluorinated LC molecule ME3CP to E8 significantly reduced the driving voltage of the PDLC films, and the driving voltage reduced with the rise of mass fraction of ME3CP. Besides, the terminal flexible chain length of the fluorinated LC molecule influenced the LC mixture properties based on E8, such as the dielectric anisotropy, birefringence and viscosity of the LC mixture, and the morphology and the electro-optical properties of PDLC films were controlled not only by the physical properties of the LC mixture, but also by the terminal flexible chain length of the fluorinated LC molecule .     

The influence of diluter system on polymer-stabilised blue-phase liquid crystals

In the present work, diluter effects on the phase transition temperatures and electro-optical properties of the polymer-stabilised blue-phase liquid crystals with microsecond respond time have been carried out. The temperature range of polymer-stabilised blue-phase samples broadened over 50 K including room temperature. By increasing the concentration of diluter, the faster response time is obtained, but Kerr constant become smaller. These values are still two orders of magnitude larger than conventional Kerr materials such as nitrobenzene. The major bottleneck is the increased operating voltage. Hysteresis is sensitive to the diluter concentration and is slightly small for polymer network systems. For next-generation display technology, an optimal concentration of diluter plays a crucial role to a proper balance between response time and operation voltage.     

Restricted polymer-stabilised electrically suppressed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals

The electrically suppressed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (ESHFLC) electro-optical mode is characterised by the high contrast and fast response time at low driving voltage. However, the ESHFLC demands several constraints on the alignment layer and the cell gap. However, due to the fundamental characteristics of the ferroelectric liquid crystals, the cone angle decreases at higher temperatures, which is the biggest hurdle for this electro-optical mode to find the real application. In this article, we disclose a restricted polymer stabilisation (with very small polymer concentration in the mixture) for the ESHFLC without pushing other vital parameters out of the range of the constraints for ESHFLCs. The restricted polymer-stabilised ESHFLC shows large temperature range with stable high contrast, fast response time and low driving voltage, thus, it could find application in a range of the modern display and photonic devices.     

Monocyclic rod-type liquid crystals; 2,5-dialkanoyloxytropones and 5-alkanoyloxy-2-alkoxytropones

Two kinds of monocyclic troponoid mesogens, 2,5-dialkanoyloxytropones (4) and 5-alkanoyloxy2-alkoxytropones (5), were prepared. The former showed monotropic smectic A phases and the virtual isotropic liquid-smectic A transitions of the latter were determined by extrapolation of results in a binary phase diagram. Comparing the mesogenic properties between the tropones 4 and the 2-alkanoyloxy-5-alkoxytropones (1), the alkanoyloxy group at C-5 enhances both the melting points and the transition temperatures of the smectic A phases. From the comparison between 5 and 1, the alkanoyloxy group at C-2 lowers the melting points.     

Effects of polymer network on electrically induced reflection band broadening of cholesteric liquid crystals

The reflection band of polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals with negative dielectric anisotropy can be broadened by DC electric fields, which was ascribed to the pitch gradient caused by the motion of the structural chirality, that is, the polymer network. They systematically varied the mixture components, such as the photo‐initiator concentration, the monomer functionality, and the chiral dopant, to explore their influences on the reflection band broadening behavior. They learned how to control the polymer network morphology and ion density, which in turn determined the reflection bandwidth. By optimizing the mixture, they have greatly enhanced the broadening effect and achieved large bandwidth at low voltages. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 835–846     

Synthesis and characterization of halogen-containing ferroelectric liquid crystals and side chain liquid crystalline polymers

A new series of ferroelectric liquid crystals and side chain liquid crystalline polymers based on halogen-containing chiral centres has been synthesized. Chemical structures were analysed by NMR. Liquid crystal phases were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, optical polarizing microscopy, and X-ray diffractometry. The behaviour of the liquid crystalline phases was investigated as a function of spacer units and differing terminal asymmetric moieties. It was found that phase transition temperatures decreased with increasing length of the oligooxyethylene spacer unit. Differing terminal asymmetric moieties led to differing mesophase phenomena. Furthermore, a wide temperature range (including room temperature) of a chiral smectic C phase was achieved.     

Molecular relaxations in dual-frequency nematic liquid crystals

The preparation of nematic liquid crystals mixtures results in changing of molecular relaxations in comparison to pure substances. Typical example is the creation of dual-frequency nematic liquid crystals using a base mixture and functional admixtures. In this paper, we present how dielectric properties of starting compounds change at mixture preparation. Three dual-frequency nematic mixtures of different composition were prepared and examined by means of dielectric spectroscopy in a wide frequency (100 Hz to 10 MHz) and temperature range (170°C to ?60°C). Parameters of detected modes for pure compounds and final mixtures were calculated and their relationships with crossover frequency are discussed.     

High-pressure phase transitions in liquid crystals

Simultaneous measurements of the rate of heat evolution and changes of the mechanical variable of a transformation such as volume or pressure, performed in a p-V-T controlled scanning calorimeter have been applied to investigations of phase transitions in liquid crystals. In the instrument, the phase transitions can be induced by a controlled change of pressure, volume or temperature under isothermal, isobaric or isochoric conditions respectively. The present investigations have ben performed on 4-n-penthyl-penthylthiol-4-decycloxybenzoate which demonstrates in the liquid crystal state a nematic and three smectic phases

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Zusammenfassung In einem p-V-T-kontrollierten Scanning Kalorimeter wurden zur Untersuchung der Phasenumwandlungen in Flüssigkeitskristallen simultane Messungen der Geschwindigkeit der Wärmeentwicklung und der Veränderungen von mechanischen Größen von Umwandlungen, wie z.B. von Volumen oder Druck durchgeführt. In diesem Gerät kann die Phasenumwandlung durch eine kontrollierte Veränderung von Druck, Volumen oder Temperatur unter isothermen, isobaren oder isochoren Bedingungen ausgelöst werden. Vorliegende Untersuchungen wurden an 4-n-Pentyl-phenylthiol-4-dezyloxybenzoat durchgeführt, welches im Flüssigkristallzustand eine nematische und drei smektische Phasen aufweist.

     

Chiral banana liquid crystals derived from sugars

This paper describes the synthesis and physical properties of a chiral bent-core liquid crystal containing the chiral non-aromatic central ring system 1,5-anhydro-2-desoxy-D-arabino-hexitol. The preparation involved a stepwise construction of the mesogenic side chains via a selective diesterification of glucal at positions three and six with 4-O-acetylbenzoyl chloride followed by selective deacetylation. Repeated esterification of the aromatic hydroxy group with a substituted benzoic acid and hydrogenation of the double bond resulted in the desired product. To our knowledge, this is the first banana shaped liquid crystal synthesized containing a sugar derivative as a chiral core. Investigation of the mesogenic properties and electro-optic experiments showed traditional calamitic phases along with banana phases.     

Coumarin-based emissive liquid crystals

Calamitic luminophores are presented based on an elongated aryl-substituted coumarin core. The substitution pattern at terminal and lateral positions were systematically modified. The new compounds exhibit smectic C and/or nematic liquid crystalline phases. The chromophores show fluorescence in the blue spectral region. The benzopyranones are miscible with acrylate-substituted reactive nematic mesogens. Uniaxial orientation of the mixed systems was achieved by surface-assisted alignment on polyimide orientation layers. The film anisotropy was stabilised by subsequent photocrosslinking. The crosslinked oriented films display linear polarised photoluminescence upon isotropic excitation.     

An electrically light-transmittance-switchable film with a low driving voltage based on liquid crystal/polymer composites

ABSTRACT

As a typical class of electrically light-transmittance-switchable (ELTS) composites materials, polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films have been widely used in displays, smart windows, light shutters, etc. However, the commercialised PDLC film still requires a comparatively high voltage to maintain its transparent state, leading to huge power consumption and even a potential safety risk. In this regard, we proposed a ‘heat followed UV’ stepwise polymerisation strategy for preparing a kind of ELTS film with a low driving voltage (~20.7 V) through constructing a coexistent system of polymer dispersed and polymer stabilised liquid crystal (PD&SLC). In this new PD&SLC system, vertically orientated polymer networks were formed within LC domains to induce the vertical alignment of LC, thereby reducing the driving voltage. Also, the as-made PD&SLC film exhibited good flexibility due to the high content of polymer. Moreover, the effects of the liquid crystalline polymerisable monomers content on the polymer morphologies as well as the electro-optical properties of the as-made PD&SLC films were elaborately investigated.