Light scattering materials with tunable optical properties by controlling refractive index of the dispersed phase

Abstract

ABSTRACTTraditionally, the morphologies of the dispersed phase in Polycarbonate (PC)/poly(styrene‐co‐acrylonitrile) (SAN) blends were strongly influenced if AN content in SAN changed significantly even under constant processing conditions. This would hinder the pure research intended to study the effect of the refractive index difference between the polymer host and the polymeric dispersed particles on the optical properties tough. Therefore, we respectively prepared different PC/SAN light diffusion sheets with four types of SAN containing different AN content ranging just from 20 to 25 wt %, a narrow range that sufficiently ensures the relatively stable morphology of different SAN in PC matrix. The results suggest that the refractive index of SAN increases with an decreasing AN content, thus narrowing the refractive index difference between PC and SAN and producing PC/SAN(70/30) light diffusion sheets with an increasing transmittance and decreasing haze. The interesting phenomenon is further analyzed using Mie scattering theory. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44156.