Thermophysical properties in phenyletheracrylate liquid crystal mixtures: Effects of photoinitiator concentration

The influence of the amount of photoinitiator (Darocur 1173) on the phase b ehavior of Phenyletheracrylate/Liquid Crystal (E7) mixtures prepared by a P IPS-UV process are investigated. The phase diagrams of polymer/LC systems p repared with various photoinitiator contents are established by polarized o ptical microscopy. The miscibility between the polymer and the liquid cryst al increases when the photoinitiator content increases. The polymer glass t ransition temperatures are strongly affected by the presence of LC. These p henomena can be explained by a lower extent of the degree of polymerization when the photoinitiator concentration increases.