The effect of photoinitiator concentration and structures of RAFT macroinitiators on the memory effect of polymer dispersed liquid crystals

The article aimed to decrease the memory effect of polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) films, reversible additional-fragmental chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was used to synthesize RAFT-polystyrene (RAFT-PS), which was a kind of RAFT macroinitiators and used to prepare PDLCs via photo polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS). Different RAFT agents were used to synthesize RAFT-PS. The effect of photoinitiator concentration on the memory effect of these PDLCs was investigated, and the effect of structures of RAFT macroinitiators on the memory effect of the PDLCs was also discussed. The results showed that PDLC films with higher photoinitiator concentration and polymer matrix which had two rigid chains in two ends showed lower memory effect, which could be reduced from 10.9% to 2.5% in this experiment. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:8–13, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers