Stabilization of nematic liquid crystal dispersions with acrylamide copolymers and their electrooptical properties

This study reports the observation of electrooptical properties in polymer-dispersed liquid crystal films during the formation of a copolymerization of hydrophilic acrylamide with hydrophobic monomers (styrene and methyl methacrylate). According to the interfacial tension and coalescence time measurements, it is proposed that the presence of hydrophobic moieties onto nematic liquid crystal (NLC) droplet surface leads to a steric stabilization of the dispersion, due to increasing interfacial tension of NLC, decreasing NLC droplet size, and finally reducing anchoring effect between NLC and polymeric wall.