Synthesis of Small Silicate Spacers for Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Displays

In the presence of the aqueous solution of ammonia, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was hydrolyzed in the mixture of ethyl alcohol and water with the results of silica spacers. The spacer morphology and size distribution of the synthesized silica spacers were characterized with scanning electron microcopy and laser light scattering spectroscopy, respectively. Our results demonstrated that the synthesized silica spacers were monodispersed and were in perfect spherical shape with their sizes of about 0.7 m in diameter. The correlation between the spacer sizes and the amount of ammonia catalyst was examined, and the spacer sizes of the silica spacers strongly depended on the temperature of chemical reaction and the amount of catalyst. The diameter of silica spacers could be well controlled by controlling the amount of ammonia catalyst, and uniformly distributed silica spacers were produced. Behavior of the miscibility of the silica spacers with a nematic liquid crystal was examined.