SFI Extra Clear NCAP PDLC

Historically, the development of NCAP (Nematic Curvilinear Aligned Phases) based technology has arisen out of the extensive
work on composite films of liquid crystals and polymers. These systems were the subject of intense work for over a decade in
the mid-1980s through mid-1990s, attracting the attention of major display companies, small start-ups, and numerous
academic groups. These systems went by a variety of names: NCAP, PDLC, PNLC, liquid crystal gels, and others. All these
systems were based around the common theme of a liquid crystal cell in which a polymer network produced droplets or
domains of liquid crystal. The optical properties of the cell depended on the alignment of the liquid crystals within each
domain, with this alignment being determined by the balance of local alignment forces by the bounding polymer network, and
any applied electric field. Nearly all of these devices could be switched between a turbid, scattering state and a transparent,
non-scattering state. Over 1,000 technical papers and patents were published during the history of these materials.

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There were two major material systems used for the fabrication of these systems. The first relied on a single-phase solution of
the liquid crystal and the polymer precursor that was induced to phase separate into a polymer network and liquid crystal
domains. Photo-polymerization of reactive monomers and oligomers was by far the most popular pathway, given the versatility
of photo-polymerization chemistry and ease of processing. The vast majority of groups working on liquid crystal dispersion
displays used phase separation methods to form their devices.
These phase separation methods, though, possessed several fundamental limitations. For the purposes of this background, the
most serious flaw is a serious incompatibility with dichroic liquid crystal materials. Dichroic dyes tend to absorb light very
strongly in the ultraviolet and visible regions of the spectrum, and so significantly reduce the amount of radiation available to
initiate the photo-polymerization process. These dyes also tend to remain in the polymeric matrix and as such are unswitchable, causing relatively high adsorption even when the material is powered.
Any un-switched dye molecules will greatly degrade. More importantly, dichroic dyes can interfere with the actual
polymerization chemistry through reaction with the growing polymers used to induce phase separation. Rather than being
cured in seconds, dichroic dyes force irradiation times of an hour or more, totally impractical in manufacturing.
Dichroic dyes dissolved in a liquid crystal provide the most attractive route for the fabrication of smart films for energy saving
and other innovative based products. The absorbance of the dye depends on the alignment of the dye molecules, which tends
to follow the alignment of the liquid crystal. In this way, dichroic based devices provide both a controllable absorption and a
controllable scattering effect, leading to an attractive smart film product.
The other major approach towards dispersed liquid crystals used a water-based emulsion to form the composite film. An
emulsion of liquid crystal droplets was dispersed into a water-based, film-forming polymer.