Preliminary communication Electron beam cured liquid crystal-polymer composite materials: electro-optical enhancement effect

Abstract

Polymerization induced phase separation initiated by electron beam radiation has been used as a powerful method to obtain well defined PDLC films. Mixtures of different amounts of an aromatic polyester acrylate, an oligoether triacrylate and nematic liquid crystal material E7 were exposed to the electron beam radiation. The electro-optical properties strongly depend on the liquid crystal concentration and on the amount of the oligoether triacrylate in the prepolymer mixture, and are highly reproducible. An unusual enhancement effect of the electro-optical sensitivity was found for samples containing 28 weight per cent and 34 weight per cent of the oligoether triacrylate.