Thermal Switching of Selective IR Reflection for (Polymer Network/Liquid Crystals/Chiral Dopant) Composite Systems

Abstract

[Liquid crystalline polymer network (LCPN)/nematic liquid crystal (N-LC)/chiral dopant] composite systems were prepared by photo-polymerizing (photo-polymerizable liquid crystalline monomer/N-LC/chiral dopant/photoinitiator) mixtures in the planarly oriented chiral nematic (N^*) phases. Since the distribution of the pitch length induced by the helical twisting power of the chiral dopant used in the composite system increased with increasing temperamre, the spectrum band of the selective reflection of the N^* phase for the composite system became broader with increasing temperature. Such a composite system is very prospective as a thermo-sensitive light transmission ↔ light reflection shutter.