Response time, an important property of polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs), was reported to be affected by the structures of the polymer matrix. In this study, reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) were used to synthesize a well-defined copolymer matrix. A kind of graft macroinitiator with both controlled main chain and branched chains was employed to prepare PDLCs with a graft copolymer matrix; meanwhile a linear macroinitiator was also synthesized to prepare PDLCs with a linear copolymer matrix. The effect of different matrix structures on response times was investigated. It was found that the introduction of branched chains made a big difference to response times, and a possible mechanism was proposed.
Tan Lin,Xing Jin-xing,Cao Fu-hu,Chen Li-juan,Zhang Chong,Shi Rong-hua,Wang Yan-mei
A series of double-hydrophilic double-grafted PMA- g -PEG/PDMA copolymers, which contained poly(methacrylate) (PMA) as backbone, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and poly( N,N -dimethylacrylamide) (PDMA) as side chains synthesized successfully by using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), were used as physical coatings for the evaluation of protein-resistant properties by capillary electrophoresis (CE). Electroosmotic flow (EOF) measurement results showed that the PMA- g -PEG/PDMA copolymer coated capillaries could suppress electroosmotic mobility in a wide pH range (pH = 2.8–9.8) and EOF mobility decreased with the increase of copolymer molecular mass and PDMA content. At the same time, protein recovery, theoretical plate number of separation and repeatability of migration time demonstrated that antifouling efficiency was improved with the increase of molecular mass and PEG content.