Thermophysical, dielectric, and electro-optic properties of nematic liquid crystal droplets confined to a thermoplastic polymer matrix

The thermophysical, dielectric and electro-optic properties of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films made of monodisperse polystyrene (PS) and 4-n-pentyl-4(')-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) are investigated by polarized optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, ac impedance analysis, and forward transmittance measurement technique. The PS-5CB system exhibits an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) shape phase diagram with a wide isotropic+isotropic (I+I) miscibility gap between the isotropic and nematic+isotropic (N+I) regions. An absorption domain in the dielectric spectrum of PDLC films was clearly observed at low frequency, and unambiguously assigned to the confined liquid crystalline phase in both nematic and isotropic states. The correlation between the dielectric and electro-optical results for PS-5CB (30:70) samples has shown that in the vicinity of the low frequency absorption domain ( approximately 200 Hz at T=25 degrees C), a drastic decrease in the optical transmittance of the film occurs. This phenomenon can be related to an interfacial polarization process resulting from a charge accumulation at the droplet-polymer interface (Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars effect).