Effect of functionality of thiol on the optical properties of liquid crystals/polymer composite films

ABSTRACT

Optical diffusers with high transmission, high haze and excellent diffusing ability are widely needed in backlight unit (BLU) of liquid crystal displays (LCDs). However, there are still drawbacks in the particles-doped optical diffusers, including the distribution of the scattered particles due to agglomeration of particles and complex coating process. In this paper, polymer/liquid crystal (LC) composite films which are based on the epoxy resins, polyamine (PA) and varied thiol monomers were firstly prepared by thermally initiated polymerisation. The morphologies and optical properties of the composite films were systematically investigated. By controlling the functionality of thiol in the system of epoxy resins/thiol/PA/LCs, as the light scattering of anisotropic LCs and isotropic polymer framework is both achieved in the optical diffusers, good diffusing ability and high visible transmission (total transmission >96.0% and transmission haze > 95.0%) are obtained.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Polymer framework
• liquid crystals
• light scattering
• thiols
• polyamine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFB0703704, 2019YFC1904702), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant no. 51921002 and 51927806), the joint fund of the ministry of education for equipment pre research (6141A020222).