Ana M. García Serrano

Glass dispersed liquid crystals

Abstract Liquid crystals can be trapped into inorganic (silica) substrates by sol-gel processes. The sol-gel process consists of hydrolysis and polycondensation reactions of metal organic monomers, i.e. organoalkoxy silanes, which allows the formation of a silica gel-glass. These processes have been used since 1984 for trapping organic molecules into inorganic oxides; usually, single molecules are trapped into isolated gel-glass (nm size) pores. However, it is possible, by chemical means, to induce larger (0.1–10 pm) cavities in the network of the gel-glass allowing the formation of embedded micron size droplets of low molecular weight nematic LC molecules. Surface variations in these cavities (e.g., providing a molecular oriented surface using Si-CH,CH, groups on the pore cage) may allow a lamellar structure and alignment of the nematogenic LC compounds at the surface. It was suggested that order arises as a consequence of the chemical affinity between the apolar character of the pore surface and the lip...

Light scattering spectral behavior of liquid crystal dispersions in silica glasses

Dispersions of nematic liquid crystal microdroplets in silica glasses have been obtained by sol‐gel processes, forming gel‐glass dispersed liquid crystals (GDLCs). GDLC microdroplet size may be adjusted precisely by controlling the sol‐gel reaction. This allows the preparation of scattering media with different spectral response, which can be further modified by reorienting the liquid crystal microdroplets with external electric fields. Opaque/transparent and dichroic GDLC thin films have been prepared. An extension of the general scattering theory is used for explaining their optical behavior.

Electrooptical properties of gel-glass dispersed liquid crystals

Liquid crystal microdroplets can be trapped into silica gel-glasses by sol-gel processes. Several silica matrices containing different non-reacting organic radicals have been employed for preparing gel-glass dispersed liquid crystals (GDLC). The optical properties of thin GDLC layers may be modified by coating the material with transparent electrodes and applying external AC-voltage signals. Switching between opaque and transparent states is achieved. The sample transmission depends on the scattering properties of the material; no polarizers are required. The transmission of the transparent state is improved by matching the refractive indices of the gel-glass matrix and the liquid crystal. This can be achieved by adding high refractive index dopants to the starting mixture, or by substituting the non-reacting organic group of the silica matrix. Both approaches have been tested. Phenyl and methyl monomers have been used as well as titanium-based dopants. The resulting GDLC materials have been optimized by controlling the starting mixture composition, the reaction conditions, and the film preparation. The optics, dynamics, and stability of GDLC films are analyzed.