Abstract
Miscibility phase diagram and phase separation dynamics of a mixture of a flexible polymer and a monomeric liquid crystal, hereafter called a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC), have been investigated. A theoretical calculation was carried out for predicting an equilibrium phase diagram of a PDLC system by taking into consideration Flory-Huggins (FH) free energy of mixing of isotropic liquid phases in combination with Maier-Saupe (MS) free energy of nematic ordering of the liquid crystal. The combined FH-MS theory predicts a "tea-pot" phase diagram in which liquid-liquid phase separation is overlapped with an isotropic-nematic coexistence region. A temperature-composition phase diagram of a mixture of hydroxyl functionalized polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA-OH) and eutectic nematic liquid crystals (E7) was established by light scattering and differential scanning calorimetry. This phase diagram can be characterized as an upper critical solution temperature exhibiting liquid-liquid phase separation between the polymer and the isotropic phase of the liquid crystal. The nematic-isotropic transition occurs at high liquid crystal compositions. The calculated phase diagram was found to conform well with the cloud point phase diagram. The dynamics of phase separation was investigated by means of light scattering and optical microscopy. The time-evolution of structure factor was analyzed in terms of a power law.
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