Premium
Influence of inorganic salts on optical transmission behaviour of thermotropic hydrogels
Author(s) -
Fischer Th.,
Holzbauer H.R.,
Seeboth A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
materialwissenschaft und werkstofftechnik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.285
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1521-4052
pISSN - 0933-5137
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-4052(199908)30:8<473::aid-mawe473>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - chemistry , polymer chemistry , polymer , analytical chemistry (journal) , chromatography , organic chemistry
Lyotropic liquid crystalline gels based on a polyalkoxy derivative with a middle molecular weight of 4800 can be used for the development 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 detailed knowledge of the influence of salt concentration on the temperature of the phase separation permits researchers to develop systems which change their transmission from clear to cloudy at any desired temperature. Based on the gel systems studied, it is possible to develop intelligent windows which change their transmission values from ≥ 95% to almost 0% in the temperature range between 25 and 50 °C, thus allowing them to work as intelligent shadow‐givers.