Cyano terminated tolane compounds for polymer dispersed liquid crystal application: relationship between cyano terminated tolane based molecular structures and electro-optical properties. Issue 12 (26th September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Huimin; Chen, Mei; Jiang, Tianmeng; Chen, Haiguang; Zhang, Dechao; Sun, Yunfeng; Zhang, Lanying; Zhu, Siquan; Yang, Huai
• Is Part Of: Liquid crystals. Volume 45:Issue 12(2018)
• Page Start: 1771
• Page End: 1782
• Publication Date: 2018-09-26
• Subjects: Cyano-terminated tolane liquid crystal -- high birefringence -- high positive dielectric anisotropy -- polymer dispersed liquid crystal -- electro-optical properties; Liquid crystals -- Periodicals; 548.905
• DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2018.1485975
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0267-8292

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The structures of the liquid crystal (LC) molecules have a key role in impacting the electro-optical performance of a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film. In this paper, the relationship between the LC molecular structures and the electro-optical properties of PDLC films is investigated based on an unexplored cyano-terminated tolane compounds (CTTCs) doped E8 LCs/UV polymers system. Due to the high polarity of CTTCs, LCs doped with the cyano-terminated tolane (CTT) molecules exhibit high birefringence and large positive dielectric anisotropy. On the whole, PDLC films doped with the CTT molecules exhibit a lower driving voltage than that doped with the pure E8. More excitingly, PDLC films based on CTT molecules with larger length-to-width ratio and longer conjugated system show higher contrast ratio ( CR ) and faster response time. Eventually, the mechanism of the effects of CTT-based molecular structures and the relationship between the electro-optical performance of PDLC films and CTT molecules are illustrated. This work paves a new way for optimising the electro-optical properties of PDLC films. Graphical Abstract: