A study on the design, morphology and electro-optical properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal films doped with Sudan black B dye

Abstract

To fabricate and use PDLC-based smart windows, electro-optical (EO) properties such as high transparency at low driving voltages, high contrast ratios (CR), and a wide viewing angle are critical. Thus, there is always a need to either develop new materials with excellent performance or to improve the existing ones. Doping materials (other than the LC and polymeric materials) such as dyes and nanomaterials, can also be used to adjust the EO properties. Sudan black B (SBB) dye and newly available LC material were doped in PDLC material in order to address such a scenario. In our investigation, we found that the doping SBB dye at a weight ratio of 1wt%and LC material with 60 wt% into NOA65 prepolymer PDLC resulted in a great performance of PDLC devices e.g. a high CR response (8.8) and high transmittance even at a low deriving voltage (5 Volt).