Effects of Monomer Structures on Morphology and Electro-Optic Property of Polymer-Stabilized Cholesteric Texture

Polymer-stabilized cholesteric texture (PSCT) films were prepared by means of polymerization induced phase separation. The influence of different monomers, including 4,4′-bis［6-(acryloyloxy)-hexyloxy］biphenyl(BAB6), 1,4-di-［4-(3-acryloyloxyhexyloxy) benzoyloxy］-2-methyl benzene (HCM-009) and 1,4-di-［4-(3-acryloyloxypropoxy) benzoyloxy］-2-methyl benzene (LCM), on the electro-optic property of normal-mode and reverse-mode PSCT films was investigated. It was indicated that the monomer of BAB6 has poor solubility in liqiud crystals due to the absence of liquid crystal phase. The polymer network formed by BAB6 is loose and the averaged void size is large. While for the monomers of HCM-009 and LCM, liquid crystal phases were observed resulting in good solubility. As anchoring effect of polymer networks formed by BAB6, HCM-009 and LCM increased grandually, smaller threshold (saturated) voltage, longer decay time and larger hysteresis width were observed for normal-mode PSCT. Whereas for reverse-mode PSCT, higher driving voltage and faster response time were found.