Abstract

A new system of liquid-crystal composites has been obtained, consisting of a porous polyacrylonitrile gel with the low-molecular-weight nematic liquid crystal (LC) N-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline introduced into the pores. The optical properties of the LC composites have been studied as a function of the temperature and the pore size of the polymeric material. It is shown that the LC composites remain opaque all the way to the mesophase?isotropic-melt phase-transition temperature, whereas they undergo rapid decoloration when the LC makes a transition to the isotropic state. It is established that the absorption of visible light by the LC component increases as the pore size of the initial gel increases.

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