3B02 Analysis of Phase Separation Mechanism of (Polymer/Liquid Crystal) Composite Systems Based on in-situ Light Scattering Measurements

Abstract

(Polymer/liquid crystal : LC) composite systems consisting of a continuous LC phase embedded in a three-dimensional network of a polymer matrix were prepared by a photo-polymerization-induced phase separation method. The phase separation is one of the important factors for controlling the mesh size of the polymer network. The phase separation behavior can be evaluated by the light scattering measurement during photo-polymerization. In our study, the induced time of the phase separation was delayed as polymerization temperature was increased. The miscibility of polymer and liquid crystal is likely to be responsible for the timing of phase separation. Thus, the final aggregation structure for the (polymer/LC) composite system was governed by the kinetics of the polymerization and phase separation.