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ABSTRACT
A number of polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films based on dimethacrylate monomers were synthesised by polymer-induced phase separation (PIPS) using polyethylene glycol p-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)-phenyl ether (TX-100) as an additive up to total solution weight of 10% aiming to modify the initial anchorage force of the liquid crystal (LC) molecules to the polymeric matrix. The effects of the addition of this additive to the PDLC films were studied resorting to electro-optical studies. Using a fitting model, several parameters were correlated such as the permanent memory effect (PME), the voltage required to achieve 90% of maximum transmittance (E90), the average elastic constant (K) and the rotational viscosity of the director (γ). The use of TX-100 results on an increase on the PME and γ, and decrease on the E90 and K.
Graphical Abstract
Notes
1. In the Leslie–Ericksen formulation of nematodynamics, the director rotational viscosity is indicated as γ1 with γ1 = α3-α2, where α2 and α3 are two of the six Leslie viscosity coefficients of the nematic. In our case, we have indicated the director rotational viscosity as γ because it is an effective viscosity resulting from the approximation where both flow and the director non-uniformity within the LC-rich regions are neglected.