Influence of inorganic salts on optical transmission behaviour of thermotropic hydrogels

摘要

Lyotropic liquid crystalline gels based on a polyalkoxy derivative with a middle molecular weight of 4800 can be used for the devel- opment of smart windows. Inorganic salts added to the polymer/ water mixture have a strong influence on temperature-transmission behaviour. Changes in transmission are based on phase transitions as well as on phase separations. The results of our studies show that the de- tailed knowledge of the influence of salt concentration one tem- perature of the phase separation permits researchers to develop sys- tems which change their transmission from clear to cloudy at any desired temperature.