A new twist on cholesteric films by using reactive mesogen particles

Abstract

An innovative approach to producing reflective systems is presented by using Reactive Mesogen based Cholesteric Particles (ChRMPs). The versatility of the novel ChRMPs opens up the door for producing single- or multi-wavelength reflective systems by mixing particles with Bragg reflection located at different wavelength values. Particulate based films can be prepared in the absence of any alignment layer on any kind of substrate with very wide viewing angle behaviour, which is in clear contrast to conventional reflective films based on cholesteric liquid crystals with planar alignment. The straightforward film preparation, the flexibility of the synthesis and the excellent viewing-angle properties make ChRMPs very interesting new materials to produce reflective films for applications including, but not limited to, flat panel displays such as in brightness enhancement or colour filters.