Purification of deteriorated liquid crystals by employing porous metal-organic-framework/polymer composites

Abstract

This study demonstrates the effectual purification of degraded nematic liquid crystals (LCs) by introducing metal-organic framework (MOF) into the copolymer with either negatively charged 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) or positively charged (vinylbenzyl) trimethylammonium chloride (VBTA). Experimental results show that the ion elimination is primarily achieved by the nanoporous MOF itself while AMPS or VBTA plays an important role in functionalizing MOF with hydrophilicity. It was found that the overall ion-removal efficacy of either MOF/polymer-AMPS or MOF/polymer-VBTA composite is higher than that of the pristine MOF counterpart. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America