In this article, copolymer macroinitiators prepared with styrene and iso-octyl acrylate by reversible additional-fragmental chain transfer polymerization were used to prepare polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) with methyl acrylate. The electro-optical properties of the PDLCs were investigated. The results showed that the glass transition temperature (T-g) of the macroinitiator has a great influence on the memory effect of the resulting PDLCs. Low driving voltage and low memory effect PDLCs could easily be obtained with copolymer macroinitiators. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 5557-5561, 2010