Polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) in a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) system: A Monte-Carlo simulation approach

Abstract

The polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) process in a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) system was studied by using Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation methods. In particular, the dependence of the phase separation between liquid crystal and polymer on the parameters, such as temperature γ = ∊/kT, polymerization reactivity p and curing time t _c, was examined. It was found that the pair correlation function G(a, t) decreases with the decrease of temperature when the polymerization reactivity p is fixed. Our results also revealed that at a constant temperature, the final value of G(a) first increases with the increasing of p, and finally approaches a constant value. This observation provides us an effective way of controlling the size of liquid crystal droplets as well as their distributions. It was observed that the equilibrium value of G(a) increases as the curing time increases when both temperature and p are kept constant. This is another way of controlling the size of liquid crystal droplets.