Effects of Host Liquid Crystal Composition on the Stability of Liquid Crystalline Blue Phases.

The temperature range of blue phase liquid crystal can be extended through the use of polymer stabilization. In this work, the mixing condition for the host liquid crystal mixture containing E8, PE-5CNF, and CPP-3FF; and the monomer UCL-011 and the chiral dopant NYC-22133L was investigated. Typically, the operating temperature for displays should be in the range of −40 to +80°C. The chiral dopant and monomer tend to lower the clearing temperature; thus, the host LC should have a high BP-Iso clearing temperature. In this work, optimization of the ratio of the host liquid crystal with respect to the monomer was carried out. It was found that a ratio of 5:3:2 for E8: PE-5CNF: CPP-3FF gave a polymer stabilized blue phase of ∼50.4°C. Driving voltage and electro-optic hysteresis was also investigated, yields a conclusion that a trade-off between driving voltage and hysteresis exists for the PSBPLC mixture that was investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]