Polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) were prepared by UV photopolymerization of the mixture monomers of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA)

ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) and pentaerythritol tetraacrylate (PETTA) in the presence of liquid crystals P0616A and photoinitiator Irgacure 184.The effects of different alcohols with different short chains

i.e .

ethanol (EtOH)

n-butanol (nBA)

n-hexanol (nHA)

n-octanol (nOA) and n-tetradecanol (nTA)

on the photopolymerization kinetics

liquid crystal phase transition temperature (TNI) and electro-optical performance of PDLCs were investigated.The results reveal that the addition of these non-reactive low molecular alcohols

especially nBA

significantly increases the polymerization rate and monomer conversion of monomer/liquid crystal dispersions

and the monomer conversion reduces with increasing the chain length of the alcohol

but remains higher than that without alcohol.Additionally

TNIof PDLCs decreases with adding alcohols

and tends to further decrease with the increasing of alcohol chain length.The addition of alcohols also increases the fraction of nematic phases in PDLCs

and the fractions of nematic phases in PDLCs containing nBA and nTA are lower than those containing EtOH

nHA and nOA.Finally

the alcohols dramatically decrease the threshold voltage

saturated voltage and contrast ratio of PDLCs.Combining the effect on the photopolymerization kinetics

nBA is the best choice for improving the performance of PDLCs.