A pressure-sensitive adhesive and a liquid crystal cell including the same are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a pressure-sensitive adhesive having a storage elastic modulus of 700 kPa or more at a temperature of 25° C. and a frequency of 6 rad/sec, and a gel fraction of 35% or more, wherein the gel fraction is defined by Equation 1:

B/A×100  [Equation 1]

wherein, A is an initial mass (g) of the pressure-sensitive adhesive, B is a mass (g) of an insoluble content after the pressure-sensitive adhesive is immersed in a solvent at 60° C. for 24 hours and then dried at 150° C. for 30 minutes. The press-sensitive adhesive is advantageous for implementation into a flexible element between upper and lower substrates of a liquid crystal cell, and providing excellent electro-optical properties and appearance uniformity by minimizing defects.

A method for preparing a switching element which is operable in and electrically switchable between an optically clear state and a scattering state, wherein one or more polymerisable mesogenic compounds provided in a layer containing a liquid-crystalline medium which comprises one or more mesogenic compounds, one or more chiral compounds and the one or more polymerisable mesogenic compounds are subjected to polymerisation in the presence of a direct current (DC) electric field in the layer. Also, a switching element obtained or respectively obtainable by carrying out the method and to the use of the switching element in a window.

The present invention relates to an assembly of switching layers for dimming and scattering of light and to window elements comprising the arrangement of switching layers.

The present invention relates to benzotriazole derivatives selected from the group of compounds of formulae Ia, Ib and Ic as defined in claim 1, to mesogenic media comprising the compounds of formulae Ia, Ib and Ic, and to the use of these compounds and mesogenic media in optical, electronic and electro-optical applications, in particular in devices for regulating the passage of energy from an outside space into an inside space, for example in windows.

The present invention relates to liquid-crystalline media comprising one or more mesogenic compounds, one or more chiral compounds, and one or more polymerisable mesogenic compounds, wherein the media exhibit a pitch of 0.55 μm or more and a clearing point of 80° C. or more and wherein the one or more polymerisable mesogenic compounds are contained in an amount, based on the overall contents of the media, of 5% by weight or less. The present invention further relates to modulation materials obtainable from the media and to switching layers and window elements containing the materials.

The present invention relates to liquid-crystalline media comprising one or more mesogenic compounds of formula I as set forth hereinafter, wherein the one or more compounds of formula I are contained in the medium in an amount, based on the overall contents of the medium, of at least 15% by weight. The present invention further relates to a switching layer, a switching element and a window element containing the liquid-crystalline medium.

A liquid crystal cell, a manufacturing method thereof and a use thereof are provided in the present disclosure. The liquid crystal cell is in a normally transparent mode, and has excellent transmittance-variable characteristics in a transparent mode and a scattering mode and excellent haze characteristics in the scattering mode. Such liquid crystal cell may be applied to various light modulation devices, such as a smart window, a window protective film, a flexible display element, a light shielding plate for transparent displays, an active retarder for 3D image displays or a viewing angle control film.

A polymer composition that includes a polyhedral silsesquioxane (POSS) dispersed within a polymer matrix that contains a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer is provided. The polyhedral silsesquioxane contains an aromatic group. The polymer composition exhibits a dielectric constant of about 4.5 or less as determined at a frequency of 10 GHz.

Described herein are liquid crystal compositions and derivative mixtures thereof that can allow for the adjustment of their refractive indices by the application of an electric field. In addition, selectively dimmable reverse-mode polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) elements and devices using the aforementioned compositions are also described, which are transparent when no voltage is applied and opaque when a voltage is applied.

An optical device that is disposed to manage light transmittance therethrough includes a multi-layer photochromic sheet that is composed of a first layer, a second layer, and a photochromic layer interposed therebetween. The photochromic layer is composed of a mixture of dichroic dye and photo-isomerizable material that are disposed in a liquid crystal host, and the first and second layers are each fabricated from a clear polymer.