Nanoparticles and networks created within liquid crystals

We report the in situ creation of growing polymer nanoparticles and resulting polymer networks formed in liquid crystals. Depending on the concentration of monomer, polymerization-induced phase separation proceeds in two distinct regimes. For a high monomer concentration with a good miscibility, phase separation is initiated through the nucleation and growth mechanism in the binodal decomposition regime and rapidly crosses over to the spinodal decomposition process, consequently resulting in interpenetrating polymer networks. For a dilute system, however, the phase separation mainly proceeds and completes in the binodal decomposition regime. The system resembles the aggregation process of colloidal particles. For a dilute system, the reaction kinetics is limited by the reaction between in situ created polymer aggregates and hence the network morphologies are greatly in uenced by the diffusion of reactive growing polymer particles. The thin polymer layers localized at the surface of substrate are frequently observed and can be comprehended by the interfacial adsorption and further cross-linking reaction of in situ created polymer aggregates at the interface. This process provides a direct perception on understanding polymer stabilized liquid crystals accomplished by the interfacial polymer layer formed by polymerization of dilute reactive monomers in liquid crystal (LC) host.