P‐181: Enhancing the Bragg‐Reflection by Blending Ag Nanoparticles in Polymer Stabilized Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

The coupling between the incident light and the highly reflective nanoparticles is believed to potentially raise the reflective intensity of PSCLCs by creating a channel that causes the incident light to reach the helical CLCs and reflect outward. Therefore, in this research Ag nanoparticles were blended into polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals (PSCLCs) to enhance their reflective intensity. A small amount of blending Ag nanoparticles (less than 1.0 wt%) in PSCLCs that investigated with 1wt% ‐ 3wt% RM 257 polymerization effectively leads to an increase of the reflective intensity of up to 17%, but has little effect on their thermally induced dynamical reflection variations. These results indicate that the blending of Ag nanoparticles in PSCLCs is an adequate method for the investigation of highly reflective PSCLCs.