Morphological Study of PDLC Films with Refractive Index Using Catalyst
Abstract
In present study the smart glass films whose feed ratio based on Nemetic liquid crystal (LC) and epoxy resins through the polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) technique. Study the applications in display technology to inspect the morphological activities and refractive indices of epoxy resins based PDLC films (Smart Glass) using Tris(hydroxymethyl)amine as catalyst. In this study, best possible preparation condition was 20% LC, curing time 5 hrs at 90°C temperature. In this research, the refractive index of the domain size of PDLC films was studied using Abbe Refractometer at ambient temperature. The Tris(hydroxymethyl)amine have distorted the difference between the refractive indices of the polymer and the LC, and the aggregation increases the light scattering that could develop the morphological characteristics of the composites. In addition, PDLC films were prepared with different amounts of Tris(hydroxymethyl)amine to investigate the best ratio of the catalyst. It is revealed that when the weight feed ratio of LC was 20% in PDLC and 2% of Tris(hydroxymethyl)amine catalyst, then dispersed state of LC were well proportioned, and the variation of transmittance reached the highest value which noticeably affect the morphological characteristics of the composites. The refractive index of polymer matrix varied in the series due to the composition difference .Concurrently, these result lengthen the possible applications of epoxy resins smart glass thin films by choosing accurate compositions ratio, heating time, and catalyst reaction used for fabrications of smart films.
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