Preparation of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal doped with indium tin oxide nanoparticles

ABSTRACT

To study polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films doped with indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles (NPs), samples were prepared by ultraviolet-initiated polymerisation based on the thiol–acrylate system. Owing to the interaction between PDLC system and ITO NPs, the content and the size of ITO NPs are the main determinants to the microstructure which plays an essential role on the electro-optical and anti-infrared properties of the PDLC films. In the polymer matrix, a novel microstructure consisting of a dense surface, micron-sized meshes and submicron meshes is found to benefit the better performances of the low driven voltage (20.7 V), the relatively high contrast ratio (8.3) and the lowest transmittance(500–2500 nm) on average at about 3.55% with maximum of merely 7.6%. Thus, it lays a solid foundation for the further investigations on the microstructure and the performance of the PDLC films. Meanwhile, it is proved that the PDLC film, improved performance through doping ITO NPs, is promising to be a superior choice in the field of energy-saving.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Polymer-dispersedliquid crystal
• ITO NPs
• thiol–acrylate
• electro-opticalproperties
• anti-infraredradiation

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51673023, 51373024, 51602007, 51372029, 51333001 and 51573101), the Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program (No. 2013C102).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [51333001, 51372029, 51373024, 51573101, 51602007, 51673023]; Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program [2013C102].