Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.491, 58-66, 2008
Improvement of Electro-Optic Properties in PDLC Device by Using New Cross-Linker for the Control of the Contrast Ratio, Response Time and Driving Voltage
We developed new cross-liker for the PDLC application that includes the bisphenol A and tris(hydroxyphenyl)ethane moieties in the structure with bis- or tris-acrylate at the end of molecules to induce photo-polymerization. Although the cross-linker was added as small as 2% similar to 10% (more ratio) to compare with monomer, the electro-optic properties of PDLCs were found to exhibit significant change with material selection. We found that the more cross-linker added, the droplet size of LC became small which affected the properties of PDLC devices such as response time and driving voltage, directly. We found that tri-functionalized cross-linker synthesized from tris(hydroxyphenyl)ethane moiety could enhance the electro-optic property in PDLC. Also, in the PDLCs containing smaller size of liquid crystal droplets, although the response time and driving voltage were increased, the contrast ratio was enhanced, significantly.
Keywords:cross-linker;electro-optical property;photo-polymerization;polymer dispersed liquid crystal