See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: [Link]

net/publication/301942710

Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications

Chapter · May 2016

DOI: 10.1201/b19977-15

CITATION READS

1 1,497

3 authors, including:

Mingliang Jin Lingling Shui

South China Normal University South China Normal University
160 PUBLICATIONS 2,780 CITATIONS 336 PUBLICATIONS 7,673 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Lingling Shui on 28 August 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Design, Fabrication, Properties
and Applications of Smart and
Advanced Materials

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Design, Fabrication, Properties
and Applications of Smart and
Advanced Materials
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

Editor
Xu Hou
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Collaborative Innovation Center, China
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and
Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA, USA

p,
A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Version Date: 20160419

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4987-2249-0 (eBook - PDF)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts
have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume
responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers
have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to
copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has
not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmit-
ted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access [Link].
com ([Link] or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood
Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and
registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC,
a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
[Link]

and the CRC Press Web site at

[Link]

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Preface

Advances in the research and technology of materials offers great promise.

Materials science forms the foundation for those engaged in materials
development because the intramolecular and intermolecular interactions,
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

the interface properties, the mechanical properties, the chemical properties,

the electrical properties, the thermal properties, the optical properties, the
magnetic properties, the structures, and the components of materials that
scientists study and engineers design with are all based on these material
properties.
How to select the “BEST” material is usually a challenging task,
requiring tradeoffs between properties. Designing smart materials is
one of the important and effective ways to develop advanced functional
materials that have one or more properties which can be significantly
changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as light, stress,
temperature, moisture, pH, electric or magnetic fields, etc. In this book, the
authors introduce various smart and advanced materials, the strategies for
design and preparation of novel materials from macro to micro/nano or
from biological, inorganic, organic to composite materials. Meanwhile, the
authors will make systematic introduction in each chapter about their latest
research progress and the latest applications in the related fields.
The development of these smart and advanced materials and their
potential applications is a burgeoning new area of research, and a number
of exciting breakthroughs may be anticipated in the near future from the
concepts and results reported in this book. The book can also be used as a
textbook for undergraduate and graduate education.
January 2016 Xu Hou
Xiamen University

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Contents

Preface v
1. Introduction 1
Xu Hou
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

2. Smart Materials for DNA-Based Nanoconstructions 13

Weina Fang, Jianbang Wang and Huajie Liu
3. Smart Materials for Protein-Based Nanoconstructions 53
Youdong Mao
4. Smart Materials for Controlled Drug Release 90
Linfeng Chen
5. Smart Materials for Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment 128
Jing Huang, Haibo Cheng and Peng Guo
6. Smart Materials for Fluorescence Sensing 168
Fan Zhang and Haibing Li
7. Smart Materials for Controlled Droplet Motion 196
Lin Wang and Hao Bai
8. Advanced Materials for Thermoelectric Applications 230
Lianjun Wang, Qihao Zhang and Wan Jiang
9. Advanced Materials for Thermo-Responsive Applications 275
Yijun Zheng and Jiaxi Cui
10. Advanced Materials for Self-Healing Applications 308
Jinrong Wu, Li-Heng Cai and Huanan Wang
11. Advanced Materials for Soft Robotics 342
Li Wen, Daniel Vogt, Zhenyun Shi, Qi Shen and Ziyu Ren
12. Advanced Materials for Biomedical Engineering Applications 376
Guokui Qin and Xin Kai

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 viii Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

13. Advanced Materials for Solar Energy Harnessing and 413

Conversion
Jian Liu
14. Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 460
Mingliang Jin, Guofu Zhou and Lingling Shui
Index 489
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:10 30 June 2016

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 14
Advanced Materials
for Reflective Display
Applications
Mingliang Jin, Guofu Zhou and Lingling Shui*

ABSTRACT
Reflective display shows information on demand by reflecting
visible light via changing colors of one material or different
moving colored materials at the scale of pixels. The increase in the
interaction between human beings and machines has made display
devices indispensable for visual communication. Based on the
materials properties, reflective displays can be driven electrically
by electrophoresis, electrowetting, electrochemical reactions, or
electromechanical forces. Displaying information by reflecting light
is regarded as a green technology because of the advantages of low
energy consumption, comfortable reading and outdoor usage. In this
chapter, the materials and devices of several popular and potential
reflective displays, including electrophoretic display, electrowetting
display, electrochromic display, cholesterol liquid crystal display,
photonic crystal display, interferometric modulator display and
liquid powder display, will be discussed in details based on the
requirements of light manipulation and device function. The chapter

Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics,

South China Normal University, High Educational Mega Center of Guangzhou, Guangzhou
510006, China.
Emails: jinml@[Link]; zhougf@[Link]
* Corresponding author: shuill@[Link]

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 461

will be involved in the interdisciplinary studies on materials and

devices. It will be of interest to many—from the graduate students
getting started in their research to materials science and technology
to the researchers looking for applications of functional materials
and devices.

1. Introduction

Displays show information on demand by manipulating visible light via

changing colors of one material or moving different colored materials at the
scale of pixels. Depending on the interaction between light and materials,
the light can be manifested by different materials via reflection, transmission
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

or emission mechanism. The electrophoretic display (EPD), the liquid

crystal display (LCD) and the organic light emission display (OLED) is the
representative of reflective, transmissive and emissive displays, respectively.
The focus of this chapter is the reflective display materials which can
reflect light with wavelength in the range of about 400–700 nm by electrical
actuation, showing different colors and grayscales in the display devices.
A common display device is basically bi-level in nature with individual
display pixels/cells, all of the same materials and sizes, arranged in a regular
array. Displays can present information like text, images or videos in color
(visible light) by activating the materials in pixels and segments, as shown
in Fig. 1. Each pixel or segment is aligned and controlled by a display
driver integrated circuit (IC) which can transfer the electrical signal to the
materials in the pixel to show the desired color or light intensity. Based on
different materials and device structures, reflective displays can be driven
electrically by electrophoresis, electrowetting, electrochemical reactions,
or electromechanical forces. The materials and working principles of

V on on on

on

on

on
off on off on off
on on on

Figure 1. Schematic drawing of the electronic digital display principle. The left-top is the curve
of driving signal and the left-bottom is the sketch of the front-plane material showing white
and black colors driven by the signal to switch on and off, respectively. Right: a letter “I” is
shown in black by switching on the corresponding pixels or segments.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 462 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

several popular and potential reflective display technologies are described

in details, including electrophoretic display, electrowetting display,
electrochromic display, cholesterol liquid crystal display, photonic crystal
display, interferometric modulator display and liquid powder display.
The reflective displays, also called “electronic paper”, are different
from LCDs and OLEDs on the working principles and the materials as well.
The most used and one of the oldest reflective displays is printed ink on
paper, such as books or newspaper. The electronic paper technology shares
a word of “paper”, holding the similar optical properties as the printed
paper and at the same time, has the “electronic” speed and controllability.
Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays which emit light, the
reflective displays reflect environmental light like paper. Such displays are
superior with respect to readability (particularly in high light conditions),
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

viewing angle and flexibility and are based on the high contrast between
(mostly white) paper and dark colored ink (liquid containing pigments or
dyes). On the other hand, many electronic paper technologies hold static
text and images indefinitely without electricity, which holds the advantages
of low energy consumption. Therefore, the reflective display is regarded as
a green technology because of the advantages of low energy consumption,
comfortable reading and outdoor usage.
This chapter focuses mainly on the property requirements, the
design and development of the advanced materials for reflective display
applications. The basic working principle and display device structures
will be introduced to the readers. Based on working principles and the
fabrication technologies, materials are designed and developed to satisfy
device manufacturing and functioning requirements. From this, the readers
can get to know how this technology has been started, and how materials
have been developed driven by applications. The main technologies of
reflective displays and related materials, including the display functional
materials and the supporting materials for device integration, will be
discussed from the molecular structure level to the device structure level.
It covers the basic knowledge for reflective display applications, giving the
hint about how to find out existing materials or designing new materials
to fulfill a functional device application.

2. Advanced Materials for Reϐlective Display Applications

Reflective displays work by electrically driven advanced materials to reflect

the ambient light through either locally changing position of different
materials or turning the optical properties of one material. Summarizing
the current technologies available, they vary in working principles and
therefore, in molecular structures and device structures.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 463

2.1 Electrophoretic Displays (EPD)

The electrophoretic display was first presented in 1973 (Ota et al. 1973).
It was an idea about placing two bi-chromo-color pigments in the glass
cavities and controlling the movement of particles to switch between
two colors for display applications. In the following decades, people
have tried to understand the mechanism and develop a model for
commercializing the electrophoretic displays (Ploix et al. 1976, Dalisa 1977,
Comiskey et al. 1998, Huitema et al. 2005, Huitema et al. 2006,
Yu et al. 2007, Henzen 2009, Christophersen et al. 2010). The major
breakthrough was made in 1998 by Jacobson et al. who reported a novel
material and design overcoming the most critical shortcoming of the
electrophoretic display at that moment (Comiskey et al. 1998). The original
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

sample was made of the microcapsules containing white particles and black
oil. Plenty of work has been done to improve the materials and the devices
(Ploix et al. 1976, Dalisa 1977, Comiskey et al. 1998, Huitema et al. 2005,
Huitema et al. 2006, Lenssen et al. 2008, Christophersen et al. 2010). The
matured mode of the electrophoretic display is encapsulating the dispersion
of the black and the white pigments in a microcapsule, and controlling
the movement of the pigments in the microcapsule by the electrical field,
which is called electrophoretic ink (E-Ink). The electrophoretic ink basically
uses pigments similar to those in regular ink for paper such as books and
newspapers. Therefore these displays have the same agreeable readability
as printed paper.
Nowadays, the microcapsule-based electronic paper displays occupies
almost 90 percentage of the electronic paper products market. The working
principle of the microcapsule-based electrophoretic display is demonstrated
in Fig. 2.
Electrophoresis describes the motion of a charged surface submerged
in a liquid under the action of an applied electric field. Considering the
case of a charged particle, the electrophoretic velocity (U) of the particle is
described by the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski equation,
 EP Ex
U , (1)

where ε is the dielectric constant of the liquid, ξEP is the zeta potential of the
particle, Ex is the applied electrical field and μ is the mobility of the particle.
The electrophoretic zeta potential (ξEP) is a property of the charged particle.
Electrophoresis causes movement of charged particles through a stationary
solution. The key factors affecting electrophoretic display function are the
charge density and size of the white and black particles, the viscosity and
dielectricity of the transparent medium, the size of the microcapsules, and
the thickness and dielectricity of the microcapsule shell. Considering the

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 464 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

Figure 2. Schematic of electrophoretic displays structure and working principle.

Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

stability of the particles in the liquid medium, sedimentation needs to be

reduced as much as possible by compensating the gravity between particles
and the dispersion solvent. According to the working principle and device
structure, the colored particles/pigments, the microcapsule shell and the
insulation oil are the key materials of this technology, and the charge control
agents and stabilizers as well.
(1) Colored Particles/Pigments
As discussed before, the colored nano- to micro- meter particles are the
key materials for realizing electrophoretic display functions. The basic
requirements for the pigment are: specific density compatibility with the
suspension solvent in order to reduce sedimentation, low solubility in
the solvent for a lifetime, high brightness for efficient optical appearance,
easily chargeable surface, good stability and easy purification to ensure
manufacture and production volume. When encapsulated into pixels or
microcapsules, the particles should not be absorbed in the pixel or on the
capsule surface. Different types of materials have been investigated for
EPD applications (Ota et al. 1973, Orsaev et al. 2000, Strohm et al. 2003,
Yu et al. 2004, Song et al. 2005, Cho et al. 2007, Nagamine et al. 2007,
Song et al. 2007, Song et al. 2007, Guo et al. 2009, Sgraja et al. 2010, Tan
et al. 2010, Wang et al. 2012, Guang et al. 2013, Tseng et al. 2013). The
most studied inorganic materials include TiO2, black carbon, SiO2, Al2O3,
chromium yellow, chromium red, ironic red and magnesium purple. The
organic particles of toluidine reds, phthalocyanine blue and phthalocyanine
green have also been investigated. The black particles can also be fabricated
by polymers with extra double bonds for which the black is dependent on
the density of the double bonds, thickness of the particle shell, ratio of core
to shell, and the size of the particles.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 465

In general, the particles/pigments are dispersed in a solution in

the original states with nanometer size and then coated with polymeric
materials to form a core-shell structure. The shell materials are typically long
chain organic materials with hydrogen bonds, such as materials with alkoxy
group, acetyl group or halogens. For a long period of time, even now, the
black carbon and titanium dioxide is used for the black and white particles
in EPD devices because of their high brightness and easy accessibility in
nature. Both black carbon and white titanium dioxide are conductive which
have to be coated by polymers to reach the requirements (Werts et al. 2008).
(2) Capsule Shell Materials
The electrophoretic display device is composed by microcapsules or
micropixels, for which the shell/pixel wall becomes one of the key materials
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

in this technology. According to the mechanism of the electrophoretic display,

the shell is for encapsulation of colored particles and the electrophoretic
medium; therefore, this material needs to be transparent, mechanically
stable but flexible, have low conductivity and be compatible with the inner
materials. For these reasons, the most used materials are organic polymers
like polyamine, polyurethane, polysulfones, polyethylene acid, cellulose,
gelatin, arabic gum, etc. (Sun et al. 2002, Song et al. 2007, Wang et al. 2009,
Li et al. 2011, Zandi et al. 2011, Mao et al. 2012, Xing et al. 2012, Campardelli
et al. 2013, Fan et al. 2013, Guang et al. 2013, Song et al. 2013, Yuan et al.
2013, Bai et al. 2014). The microcapsule fabrication method is based on
the chosen materials. The typical examples are in situ polymerization of
formaldehyde and urea to form urea-formaldehyde resin (Li et al. 2012),
and composite coagulation of gelatin and arabic gum to form composite
film (Wang et al. 2009).
(3) Suspension Medium
Inside the microcapsules of the electrophoretic display devices, the
colored particles are suspended in the liquid medium. To fulfill
the requirements of electrophoretic displays, the medium needs
to be environment friendly, have good insulation property (with
dielectric constant larger than 2 preferably), low resistance to particle
transportation, thermal and electrical stability and similar density and
reflectivity with particles. These requirements could be satisfied by
using single or formulated organic solvents such as alkylene, aromatic
hydrocarbon, aliphatic hydrocarbon, oxosilane, and so on (Park et al. 2001,
Nagamine et al. 2007, Suryanarayana et al. 2008, Werts et al. 2008,
Wang et al. 2009, Li et al. 2011). The formulation of 2-phenylbutane/
tetrachloroethylene and n-haxane/tetrachloroethylene have been obtained
and used widely. To tune the density, the high density fluorinated solvent
and low density hydrocarbon is typically mixed together.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 466 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

(4) Charge Control Agents

Another key step for manufacturing electrophoretic display materials is
to charge the particles with high density. As seen from Equation 1, the
electrophoretic velocity is proportional to the zeta potential of the particle.
Hence, for a fast display response, the particles could have high charge
density. In the non-aqueous medium, the charges could be done via the
following technologies: particle surface dissociation in solvent, surfactant
dissociation, absorption of ions or polarization by friction. Typical charge
control agents include sulfate (vitriol), sulfonate, metallic soap, organic
acid amide, organophosphate, phosphate ester, polymers, copolymers or
graft polymers.
(5) Stabilizers
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

In a microcapsule, it is actually a suspension system with oppositely charged

particles suspended in an insulation liquid. The oppositely charged particles
are naturally attracted to each other because of the electrostatic force. Besides,
two other degradation modes exist in the suspension: agglomeration
which is caused by an insufficient repulsive barrier between particles and
clustering which is caused by fluid motion within the microcapsule. All
forms of instabilities are detrimental to the life of the display device. The
stabilizer is therefore very necessary in this system (Murau et al. 1978,
Yu et al. 2007). Polymer coating is one of the most used methods to bring
steric repulsion among particles. In the non-aqueous suspension medium,
the low molecular weight surfactants cannot stabilize the particles like in
aqueous solution. The super dispersant, showing affinity to particles and
the solvent has been synthesized. The particle affinity is part of the super
dispersant links to the particles via ionic pairing, hydrogen bond, van der
Waals force. The solvent affinity part can be solvated to form a polymer
chain to become a steric stabilizer among particles. The most used steric
stabilizers or polymer coating-stabilizers are poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA),
Chevron OLOA370 and OGA 472.
In conclusion, in the simplest implementation of an electrophoretic
display, negatively charged titanium dioxide particles and positively
charged carbon black particles are dispersed in a dielectric oil. The
surfactants and charging agents are added to the oil, which charge the
particles and hold them with a gap due to the steric resistance. This mixture
is then placed between two parallel, conductive plates separated by a gap
of ten to hundreds of micrometres. When a voltage is applied across the
two plates, the particles migrate electrophoretically to the plate that bears
the opposite charge from the one on the particles. When the white particles
are located on the front (viewing) side of the display, it appears white,
because light is scattered back to the viewer by the high-index titanium
oxide particles. When the black particles are located on the front side of

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 467

the display, it appears black, because the incident light is absorbed by the
black particles. The gray scale can be realized by mixing the white and
black particles in a ratio via electrical driving schemes. If the rear electrode
is divided into a number of small picture elements (pixels), an image can be
formed by applying the appropriate voltage to each region of the display
to create a pattern of black and white regions.

2.2 Electrowetting Displays (EWD)

Electrowetting is a technology which can change the contact angle

between a liquid droplet and a hydrophobic surface when a voltage
is applied. The electrowetting concept for display application was
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

first recognized by Beni and co-workers more than three decades ago
(Beni et al. 1981, Beni et al. 1981, Jackel et al. 1982, Jackel et al. 1983). The
reflective display technology based on electrowetting was first realized
and published in 2003 by Hayes and Feenstra at Philips Research Labs
(Hayes and Feenstra 2003).
The schematic drawing of the electrowetting display is demonstrated
in Fig. 3. The hydrophobic insulator layer and micropixels are normally

Figure 3. Schematic displays of electrowetting working principle and device structure. (a) In
an EWD pixel, without applied voltage, a homogeneous oil film spreads over the pixel area
showing the color of the dyed oil (left), with an applied voltage of V, the oil film contracts to
one corner of the pixel, showing the color of the bottom substrate (right). (b) The 3D structure
of an electrowetting display device. (c) Molecular structures of dyes for EWD applications.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 468 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

made by using micro-fabrication technologies, then filled with colored oil

immersed in water and sealed with a waterproof material. The colored oil
sticks to the hydrophobic surface at the bottom of the pixel forming a thin
film without electrical field. By applying a voltage through the water and the
electrode underneath the dielectric layer, the oil film contracted to the corner
of the pixel because of changing of contact angle. The display can therefore
be operated by showing the color of the oil by spreading the colored oil over
the pixel or showing the substrate color by driving the oil into the corner
of the pixel. EWD has shown its potential for high quality information
displays with reflective mode for using ambient light, quick response
(< 2 ms switching speed has been reached) for video display
(Smith et al. 2009), good optical performance (> 50% white state reflectance
(Heikenfeld et al. 2009) and full color) (Heikenfeld et al. 2009) and fluidic
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

and soft display materials for flexible displays in the future.

The electrowetting function can be described by Young-Lipmann’s
equation, which is
V 2
cos  v  cos  0  . (2)
2
In this equation, θv is the contact angle between the liquid and the
hydrophobic surface at applied voltage V, θ0 is the static contact angle
without applied voltage, ε is the dielectric constant of the insulator material,
σ is the interfacial tension between two fluids, λ is the thickness of the
insulator. To obtain the same value of contact angle the applied voltage is
determined by the properties of materials (dielectric constant and fluidic
interfacial tension) and the thickness of the dielectric material. Extensive
work has been done to improve the display stability, lifetime, brightness,
contrast and color gamut. Typically, in an electrowetting display device,
the pixel size is in the range of tens to hands of microns, and the pixel walls
are a few microns high. The key materials for electrowetting displays are
the properties of colored non-conductive liquid (dyed oil), the transparent
conductive liquid, the insulation layer, the hydrophobic surface, and the
pixel walls.
(1) Dyed Oil
The selection of the dye materials is critical for the electrowetting display
application. The dye screening needs to ensure good electrowetting
performance, good solubility in non-conductive liquid and insoluble in
the conducting liquid, high optical density and a specific color point, the
lifetime including oil film stability at a certain temperature and resistance to
sunlight exposure, and the integrity of the two liquid phases. The dodecane
and silicone oil (Staicu and Mugele 2006) are typically chosen as the
nonconductive liquid for its interfacial tension, viscosity and dielectricity.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 469

The commercially available dyes include Oil Blue N, Sudan Red and Sudan
Blue 673 from BASF, but these materials are weak to light bleaching. Other
dyes like Blue 98, Red 164 have been created by Motorola cooperated with
Cincinnati and the yellow liquid dye from Keystone, for which the black
dye could be formulated (Sun et al. 2007, You and Steckl 2010). Liquavista
has designed and synthesized the anti-UV dye materials including purple,
magenta, blue and cyan as shown in Fig. 3c. Samsung has recently made the
dye series of SK1-SK4, specifically for electrowetting display applications
(Massard et al. 2013).
(2) Insulator and Hydrophobic Materials
Another key material in electrowetting display is the hydrophobic
insulator. As seen from the Lipmann’s equation, the hydrophobicity and
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

the dielectric constant of the insulator determine the working voltage and
the reversibility of the electrowetting. In the previous years, the single
layer organic hydrophobic insulators have been investigated intensively,
including Teflon AF (DuPont), Fluoropel 1601V (DuPont), Cytop (Asahi),
Hyflon (Solvay). These materials have good solubility in low surface tension
fluorocarbon solvent for which it is easy to be coated on substrates via spin-
coating, screen-printing or dip-coating, forming the film with a thickness of
0.1–1 µm. This strategy could achieve good electrowetting performance.
However, according to the low dielectric constant of these Teflon materials
of about 2.0, higher voltage needs to be applied for the electrowetting
performance, and the pin-hole of single layer is still the problem for the
EWD devices. Therefore, the double or multiple layers of insulator plus
hydrophobic coating have also been proposed and investigated. This
typically include a layer of insulator like SiO2 (Moon et al. 2002), Si3N4
(Malk et al. 2011), SiOC (silicon-oxide-carbon) (Malk et al. 2011) or ONO
(oxide-nitride-oxide) (Papathanasiou et al. 2008); and the hydrophobic
layer could be either a thin layer of Teflon or other types of vapor deposited
hydrophobic organic layer. This strategy somehow solved the problem of
the pin-hole, however, it needs to be carried at high temperature, making
the device of fabrication more complicated.
(3) Pixel Wall Materials
Another important material in electrowetting display is the pixel wall which
should have the wettability contrast to the hydrophobic bottom to hold the
oil film inside the pixel, and at the same time, to avoid the oil sticking to
or climb over it. The pixel wall material needs to resist to both conductive
liquid phase and the non-conductive oil phase. The photo-patternable resin
like SU-8 has been chosen as the pixel wall materials (Hayes and Feenstra
2003, Heikenfeld et al. 2009, Massard et al. 2013). Recently, other materials
like polyimide have also been investigated for materials compatibility and
easy fabrication purpose.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 470 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

(4) Conductive Liquid

As seen from the Fig. 4, the conductive liquid fills the gap between the oil
and the top plate (electrode), acting as the common electrode and the dye
oil moving medium. The conductivity, viscosity and interfacial tension
needs to be tuned to fit for micropixel based dual-liquid electrowetting
display applications. Salts like NaCl, NaSO4, Na2CO3, have normally been
added to tune the conductivity of this phase, and surfactants like sodium
dodecyl sulfate, Tween 20 or Tween 80 are added to the solution to reduce the
interfacial energy. However, the small molecules like alkali metal ions carry
a major charge for electrolysis and breakdown of the insulator layer. And
small ions can easily penetrate into the pinholes or defects of the insulator,
which is detrimental to the devices. Therefore, the polyelectrolytes and new
designed surfactants have been investigated to improve the device stability
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

(Choi et al. 2013). Moreover, ionic liquid has also been considered in the
EWD to avoid liquid evaporation (Chevalliot et al. 2011).

b
Transparent Electrode

Polymer Film
including
E RGB Catenane

Display Micron-Scale
Control Metal Electrode

Soft Active
Matrix
4
4
oxidation oxidation
E=0 E = V1 E = V2
reduction reduction

Figure 4. (a) Schematic figure of electrochromic display device structure and working principle.
(b) The example of multicolor (RGB) electrochromic material ([2]catenane) and its usage in
a display device, reprinted with permission from ref. (Ikeda and Stoddart 2008), copyright
2009 IOP.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 471

2.3 Electrochrome Displays (ECD)

Electrochromic materials have the property of a change, evocation, or

bleaching of color as affected either by an electro-transfer (redox) process or
by a sufficient electrochemical potential. It can change color in a persistent
but reversible manner by an electrochemical reaction. Electrochromism was
discovered in 1969 by S.K. Deb (Deb 1969). The principle of electrochromic
materials is explained simply as a redox reaction:

O + ne ←→ R, (3)
in which O means oxidized state, ne means the number of electrons and
R means reduced state of an electrochromic material. Depending on the
manipulation of light in the visible or invisible range, electrochromic
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

materials can demonstrate colored or transparent states. Therefore, it can

work either in transmissive or reflective mode. The transmissive mode
is commonly considered to be used as smart window material, and the
reflective mode is a potential candidate for reflective display application.
An electrochromic device is essentially a rechargeable battery in
which the electrochromic electrode is separated by a suitable solid or
liquid electrolyte from a charge balancing counter electrode, and the color
changes occur by charging and discharging the electrochemical cell with
applied potential of a few volts. The simplest way of making a working
cell is to sandwich the electrochromic material between two electrodes.
The technology for making a working electrochromic cell is very similar
to the technology used in LCD displays. An electrochromic display device
principle is demonstrated in Fig. 4a.
For display applications, the electrochromic materials are deposited onto
the electrode via different methods depending on the materials themselves
or the specific application reasons. In this device, the electrochromic material
is able to change its color reversibly when it is placed in a different electronic
state. So, by absorbing an electron (the materials is reduced) or by ejecting
one (the material is oxidized), the material is able to change its color. The
appearance of an electrochromic display would be that of a painted surface,
it is easily viewed from any angle. The state of an electrochromic material
is determined by the injected charges, which means the ECD device can
be bi-stable (no power is needed until the state is changed). Moreover, the
ECD device is simple and easy to fabricate, which bears the advantage of
large area fabrication on flexible substrates.
It is clear that the electrochromic material is the key of this device. The
materials are considered to be electrochromic when light is modulated
by reflectance or absorbance in the visible region of the electromagnetic
spectrum-color changes perceptible to the human eye. Reflective display
applications require electrochromic materials with a high contrast ratio,

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 472 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

coloration efficiency, write-erase efficiency, long cycle life, and short

response time. From the application and device fabrication perspective,
electrochromic materials can be classified into three types based on their
solubility of each redox state. Type I is soluble both in the reduced state
and the oxidized state, Type II is soluble in one redox state but that form
a solid film on the surface of an electrode following electron transfer to
oxidized state, and Type III is solid in both or all redox states. Various
types of materials and structures can be used to construct electrochromic
devices, depending on the specific applications (Chang et al. 1975, Arman
2001, Mortimer 2011). Here, we simply discuss the electrochromic materials
for reflective display applications divided into three main categories:
inorganic materials that change color with a double injection of ions and
electrons; organic materials that change color by an electro-redox reaction
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

and complex materials that change color via electron/charger transfer

among different states. For those who are interested in electrochromic
materials themselves, the review articles are recommended (Arman 2001,
Ikeda and Stoddart 2008, Mortimer 2011).
(1) Inorganic Electrochromic Materials
Transition metal oxides represent a large family of materials possessing
various interesting properties in the field of electrochromism. Among them,
tungsten oxide (WO3), has been the most extensively studied material, used
in the production of electrochromic windows/smart glass and more recently
electrochromic displays on paper substrate. The inorganic electrochromic
materials are normally deposited on a conducting substrate in the form of
a thin film. This film is held in contact with an electrolyte that is conductive
to the relevant ions. The other side of the electrolyte is in contact with an
ion reservoir containing the ions. A small voltage is applied between the
conducting substrate and an electrode is in contact with the ion reservoir.
This forces the ions into the electrochromic film from the ion reservoir
through the electrolyte, at the same time the electrons are injected into
the film from the substrate. The electrons are needed to preserve charge
neutrality.
Prussian blue (PB) is a dark blue pigment with the idealized formula
of Fe7(CN)18 which has a long history of being used in the formulation
of paints, printing inks, typewriter ribbons and carbon paper. It is not
soluble in water and employed as very fine colloidal dispersion—complex
with variable amounts of other ions. The intense blue color of Prussian
blue is associated with the energy of the transfer of electrons from Fe(II)
to Fe(III). The mixed-valence compounds absorb orange-red light of
~ 680 nm wavelength according to the intervalence charge transfer, resulting
in reflecting blue light. The appearance of it is also sensitive to the size of
the colloidal particles. Prussian blue has been reviewed in books many
times as an example of electrochromic materials.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 473

Typical inorganic electrochromic materials include the anodically

coloring materials of NiO, IrO2, Prussian blue (PB); the cathodically
coloring materials of WO3, MoO3, Nb2O5, TiO2; and the materials colored
at both states such as V 2O5, CoOx, Rh 2O3. Table 1 lists the coloring
principle and electrochromic colors of these materials. These materials are
metal oxide for which the film forming methods are vacuum deposition
(thermal evaporation, electron beam evaporation and magnetron
sputtering) and electrochemical deposition. The metal oxides are typically
deposited on a conducting substrate as a thin film with typical thickness of
0.1–1.0 µm. Such thin films are either amorphous or polycrystalline,
sometimes both admixed, and the morphology depends strongly on the
mode of film preparation.
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

Table 1. The coloring principle, name and color of some inorganic electrochromic materials.

Coloring principle Name Color

Anodically IrO2 Transparent/Black
coloring
PB Transparent/Dark-blue
V2O5 Grey/Yellow
Cathodically WO3 Transparent/Dark-blue
coloring
MoO3 Transparent/Dark-blue
Nb2O5 Transparent/Pale-blue
TiO2 Transparent/Pale-blue
NiO Transparent/Dark-bronze
Colored at CoOx Red/Blue
both states
Rh2O3 Yellow/Green

(2) Organic Electrochromic Materials

The example of the organic electrochromic material is viologen which
is hoped to be the potential candidate material for display applications,
which shows dark blue with a high contrast to the bright white, providing
high visibility. Viologen radical cations are colored intensely, with high
molar absorption coefficients, owing to optical charge transfer between the
(formally) +1-valent and 0-valent nitrogen. Different colors can be achieved,
depending on the nature of the substituent(s) on the viologen molecule.
Suitable choice of nitrogen substitutes in viologens to attain the appropriate
molecular orbital energy levels will give the color choice of the radical cation.
One of the attracting facts for organic material is the easy processability
via solution-phase or polymeric phase. Viologen based electrochromic
materials have enabled cost effective manufacturing of printed electronic
displays on a variety of flexible substrate materials using industry

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 474 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

standard printing techniques. For example, NTERA Limited has

developed NanoChromicsTM Ink Systems, and the monolith construction of
multilayer printed structure on a single substrate has also been obtained in
NanoChromicsTM displays. To enhance the contrast ratio and the coloration
efficiency, the viologen based electrochromism device has been developed
by making use of nanostructured electrodes such as the TiO2-nanoparticle
coated electrodes. Via the nanostructured surface, the surface area to volume
ratio has been increased dramatically, for which a higher volume/number
of viologen molecules can be concentrated on a relatively small surface
area, leading to a high coloration efficiency.
Polymers with intermediate bandgaps have distinct optical changes
throughout the visible region and can exhibit several colors. Conjugated
conducting polymers showing color change or contrast between doped
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

and undoped forms depends on the bandgap magnitude. For the undoped
polymer, the optical bandgap between the highest-occupied -electron band
(the valence band) and the lowest-unoccupied band (the conduction band)
determines the electrochromic properties. In the conducting oxidized state,
conjugated conducting polymers have positive charge carriers, are charge
balanced with counter-anions (p doped) and have delocalized -electron-
band structures. Table 2 summarizes some conjugated polymers and their
colors in different states.

Table 2. Some conjugated conductive polymers and their colors at different states.

Coloring Name Color

principle
Electron/ Poly (3-methylthiophene) Purple/Pale-blue
charge doping
Poly[3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene] (PEDOT) Deep-blue/Light-blue
[3,4-(propylenedioxy) thiophene (ProDOT)]- Green/Light-blue
(benzothiadiazole) heterocyclic polymer
Poly[3,4 - (ethylenedioxy)pyrrole] (PEDOP) Bright-red/Light-blue
Poly[3,4 - (propylenedioxy)pyrrole] Orange/Brown/Gray-blue
(PProDOP)
N-methyl-PProDOP Purple/Dark-green/Blue
N-[2-(2-ethoxy-ethoxy)-ethyl]PProDOP Colorless/Multiple-colors
(N-GlyPProDOP)
N-propanesulfonatePProDOP (N-PrSP-
ProDOP)
Poly(thiophene) Blue/Red

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 475

(3) Complexes of Electrochromic Materials

Metal coordination complexes show promise as electrochromic materials
because of their intense coloration and redox reactivity. Chromophoric
properties arise from low energy metal-to-ligand charge transfer, intraligand
excitation and related visible-region electronic transitions. Because these
transitions involve valence electrons, chromophoric characteristics are
altered or eliminated upon oxidation or reduction of a complex. These
spectroscopic and redox properties would be sufficient for direct use
of metal coordination complexes in solution-phase ECDs and thin-film
systems. Their polymeric phase has often been investigated for their possible
applications in type III devices (all-solid-state). Table 3 shows some metal
coordination complex electrochromic materials and their colors at different
states.
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

Table 3. Some metal coordination complexes and their colors at different states.

Coloring principle Name Color

Electron/charge Poly(ZnPc-SNS) Green/Black
transfer SNS=4-(2,5-di-2-thiophen-2-yl-pyrrol-1-yl)
Pc=phthalocyanine
Poly(H2Pc-SNS) Green/Turquoise-green
[Ru(terpy)-(box)PVP20]PF6 Wine-red/Red-orange/
terpy=2,2’:6’,2”-terpyridine Light-green
box=2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)benzoxazole
Poly[Lu(4,4’,4”,4”’-tetra- Green/Gray/Blue
aminophthalocyanine)2]
Poly(phthalocyaninatocobalt) Blue-green/Yellow-
brown/Red-brown
Poly(phthalocyaninatonickel) Green/Blue/Purple
Poly[tetrakis (2-hydroxyphenoxy) Light-green/Yellowish-
phthalocyaninato cobalt(II)] green/Dark-yellow
Lutetium bis(phthalocyanine) [Lu(Pc)2] Violet-blue/blue/Vivid-
green/Blue/Violet-blue

For display application purpose, the multicolor electrochromic materials

are promising, which can show various colors in one material, making a full
color reflective display. Mechanically interlocked compounds which consist
of a pair of mutually interlocked ring components, are referred to as [2]
catenanes which can electrochemically control red–green–blue (RGB) colors.
The design and synthesis of electrochromic materials based on switchable
three-station [2]catenanes has been summarized and its application in
reflective display is shown in Fig. 4b (Ikeda and Stoddart 2008).

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 476 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

2.4 Other Reϔlective Displays

As discussed in the previous sessions, the materials or technologies which

can manipulate the visible light reflection can find their application in
reflective displays. Besides EPDs, EWDs, ECDs, other materials like
cholesteric liquid crystals, liquid powders and photonic crystals have also
been investigated as reflective display materials and the technology like
interferometric modulator has also pushed its way through reflective display
technology. Figure 5 shows the materials, devices and working principles
of the reflective displays based on the cholesteric liquid crystal (Fig. 5a),
photonic crystal (Fig. 5b), liquid powder (Fig. 5c) and interferometric
modulator (Fig. 5d).
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

(1) Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Displays (ChLCD)

Cholesteric liquid crystals are also known as chiral nematic liquid crystals
which organize in layers with no positional ordering within layers, but a
director axis varies with layers. The variation of the director axis tends to
be periodic in nature. The period of this variation (the distance over which
a full rotation of 360° is completed) is known as the pitch which determines
the wavelength of light reflected (Bragg reflection) as shown in Fig. 5a.
The molecular orientation naturally tends to twist, so that the orientation
of the long axes of the molecules traces out helical domains. When the helix
of the twist aligns along the normal of the substrate, a planar texture can be
achieved. This configuration can reflect a component of the incoming light.
When the component of the circularly polarized light has the same sense
of the helical twist, it will be reflected to show different colors to human
eyes; and the other opposite component is transmitted (Yang et al. 1994,
Hongbo et al. 2014, Oh and Yoon 2014, Suk-Hwan et al. 2014, Yu et al. 2014).
The ChLCD is a bi-stable display, no power is dissipated to maintain
the contents displayed. The device manufacture can be compatible with
existing LCD production lines. Kent displays and Fujitsu are the main forces
commercializing the ChLCD technique. A flexible e-Paper called i2R based
on ChLCD technology has been developed by the Industrial Technology
Research Institute. The German company BMG MIS has developed ChLCDs
in full color and monochrome in various sizes and resolutions, named
“Geameleon”. The major disadvantage of the ChLCD is the high driving
voltage and relatively low optical performance compared with other
reflective display techniques, which limits its applications in display areas,
but could find applications requiring static or slow switching.
(2) Photonic Crystal Displays (PHD)
Photonic crystal display technology is based on the electrical actuation
of photonic crystal materials. Photonic crystals are periodic optical

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 477

b
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

Figure 5. The working principles and device structures of the cholesteric liquid crystal display
(a), the photonic crystal display (b), the liquid powder display (c) and the interferometric modulator
display (d).

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 478 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

nanostructures that affect the motion of photons in much the same way
that ionic lattices affect electrons in solids. Photonic crystals occur in nature
in the form of structural coloration and promise to be useful in different
forms in a range of applications. Photonic crystals can, in principle, find
uses wherever light can be manipulated. Electrically tunable photonic
crystals can provide electronic displays clearly with unique properties
(Arsenault et al. 2003, Arsenault et al. 2003, Arsenault et al. 2007).
The working principle of a photonic crystal display is shown in Fig. 5b.
Photonic crystals materials with a periodic modulation in refractive index,
are of exceptionally bright and brilliant reflected colors arising from coherent
Bragg optical diffraction. The photonic crystals can be fabricated into 1D, 2D,
3D via different methods: particle self-assembly, photolithography, drilling,
direct laser writing, etc. The periodicity of the photonic crystal structure
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

must be around half the wavelength of the electromagnetic waves that are
to be diffracted. That is ~ 200 nm (blue) to 350 nm (red) for photonic crystals
operating in the visible part of the spectrum. The contrast of the refractive
index of the periodic structure must therefore be fabricated at this scale to
obtain better color efficiency and sensitivity.
Electrical actuation of a photonic crystal ink film was enabled by its
incorporation into a sealed thin-layer electrochemical cell. The device
consists of the photonic crystal composite supported on ITO–glass as
the working electrode, a hot-melt ionomer spacer, and an ITO–glass
counter-electrode. The cell is filled with an organic solvent-based liquid
electrolyte by vacuum filling and sealed with epoxy. It is known that the
electrically responsive polymer in solution as well as in supported films
display reversible electrochemical oxidation and reduction, with the
partial electronic delocalization along the polymer backbone leading to a
continuously tunable degree of oxidation, inducing changes in volume. By
virtue of their continuously tunable state of oxidation, the photonic crystal
films display voltage-dependent continuous shifts in reflected colors.
This technology was initiated by Arsenault et al. in University of Toronto.
At the same time they founded the Opalux Company to commercialize this
technology. For display application, the device fabrication and driving
mode is simple. Each pixel of the photonic crystal display can show its
own color by electrical actuation. Apart from devices, the photonic crystal
material itself is sophisticated, and the stability and range of controllability
is quite limited. Currently, the switching speed is still low and the color is
not bright enough. According to its full color range, photonic crystals may
find applications in other fields besides displays.
(3) Liquid Powder Displays (LPD)
Liquid powder display technology has been developed by Bridgestone.
He called it quick response liquid powder display (QR-LPD) (Sakurai et al.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 479

2006). The electronic liquid powder is created by manipulating black and

white polymer nanoparticles as illustrated in Fig. 5c. The principle is similar
to EPD, however, its medium is air rather than a liquid. The low viscosity
medium makes the particle move fast, and the response time can then be
shortened. The panel fabrication process is simple and low temperature,
which means that flexible plastic materials can be used. Similar to EPD
device, the positively charged black and negatively charged white powder
is enclosed in each pixel between front and back electrodes. The electronic
powder is driven by the applied voltage to display white or black colors.
The gray level can be modulated by the electric field. Liquid powder display
doesn’t require a backlight and has a quick response time (< 1 ms). It can
also be bi-stable. The front panels are thin and flexible (Sakurai has realized
a roll-to-roll flexible liquid powder display in 2006). However, the liquid
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

powder display has the disadvantage of high driving voltage and limited
switching times of < 1 million which makes it difficult to make the display
products, and Bridgestone has recently withdrawn it.
(4) Interferometric Modulator Displays (IMOD)
Interferometric modulator is not a specific material but a structure which
can modulate the light transfer by nanostructures. It makes color in the
same way as the wings of iridescent butterflies or peacock feathers—by
being an imperfect mirror that tunes the color of incoming light before
reflecting it back to the viewer. The principle is show it in Fig. 5d. The
basic elements of an IMOD-based display are microscopic devices that
act essentially as mirrors that can be switched on or off individually.
Each of these elements reflects exactly one wavelength of light, such as
a specific hue of red, green or blue when turned on, and absorbs light
(appears black) when off. Elements are organized into a rectangular array
in order to produce a display screen (Miles 1997).
Mirasol display is the example of IMOD. It is done by small cavities
known as interferometric modulators, tens of microns across and a few
hundred nanometers deep, beneath the glass surface of the display.
Mirasol modulators have been made using techniques similar to those used
to pattern metals and deposit materials in computer chip manufacturing.
It’s the air gap between the back of a glass and a mirror membrane at the
bottom of the modulator that sets the color. The mirror membrane of each
modulator can snap upwards against the glass when a small voltage is
applied, closing the cavity and displaying a black color to the viewer. This
display can show multi-color in one pixel, showing color reflective display
with fast switching without using color filter. However, according to its
sensitivity to the nanometer size cavity, the fabrication is sophisticated and
difficult, resulting in low production yield and therefore high price. So, the
Mirasol appeared with high expectation, but disappeared quickly due to
this fatal disadvantage.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 480 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

3. Other Materials and Technologies for Electronic Display

Devices

3.1 Electrodes

All display devices require at least one optically transparent electrode. The
electrode substrates comprise an optically transparent, electrically conducted
film coated onto glass or flexible substrates. The optically transparent,
electrically conducted film is usually a transparent conducting oxide such as
tin-dopedindium oxide (ITO), F-doped tin oxide (FTO), or antimony-doped
tin oxide. ITO is ubiquitously used worldwide in numerous optoelectronic
applications, including flat-panel displays; however the indium used in
ITO is scarce. The alternative materials with lower indium content, such
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

as zinc-indium-tin oxide, are being investigated (Kim et al. 2011). Films of

pure single-walled carbon nanotubes have also emerged with comparable
transparency in the visible region and higher transparency in the 2–5 µm
infrared region (Wu et al. 2004, Wang and Fugetsu 2015). Graphene on
substrate has recently attracted a lot of attention, and a large transparent
area has been fabricated (Bae et al. 2010, Woo et al. 2014). Another option
for transparent area is the nanowire/nanofiber network based transparent
electrode which has recently been developed quickly and is ready for
commercialization for touch panel and smart window applications. At the
same time, bio-mimic nanowire network has also been explored (Han et
al. 2014). The transparent nano-network electrode is possibly being used
as a whole plate-based touch panel or the common electrode of reflective
displays like an electrowetting display. However the unpatternability limits
its applications for patterned electrodes.
For display applications, the other very important “electrode” is the
thin film transistor (TFT) for which the fast switch or video speed switch
can be realized on a display device. TFT is a special kind of field effect
transistor made by depositing thin films of an active semiconductor layer
as well as the dielectric layer and metallic contacts over a supporting
(not conducting) substrate. The most beneficial aspect of TFT technology
is its use of a separate transistor for each pixel on a display. Since each
transistor is small, the amount of charge needed to control it is also small,
which allows it for very fast switching and controlling display pixels.
TFT has been widely used in LCDs, OLDs; and the reflective display
devices such as electrophoretic displays, electrowetting displays and
electrochromic displays are all addressable by TFT technology. TFTs can be
made using a variety of semiconducting materials including silicon-based
TFT (amorphous silicon or microcrystalline silicon), oxide TFT including

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 481

metal oxides like zinc oxide and cadmium selenide, or organic TFT made of
organic materials. Driven by the huge market of displays, TFT technologies
have developed very quickly and have become a big field. The solution-
processed TFTs have been reported in 2003. Recently, the transparent TFTs
and paper transistors have also been demonstrated and would be applied
either in display technology or other electrical devices.

3.2 Sealants

To make up the device stay in place and not be degraded by contact with the
environment, sealing and fixation have to be applied. From this perspective,
the fabrication of a leak-proof device might be even more important than
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

other parts since it determines the lifetime and portability of a device.

We can imagine that, nowa days, millions of prototypes and products are
produced everyday and go for testing or to the markets. All need to pass
the environmental test. The key requirements for the sealant is chemical
durability, the temperature durability in the range of –40 to 70ºC, the anti-
UV properties (surviving outdoor usage), hydrostatic pressure (especially
in a large device containing organic solvent, inorganic solvent or both).
From the materials aspect, although there are a lot of reviews or books
focused on functional materials, the special focus of sealant for device
applications is not enough. In general, the same or a similar sealant will
be chosen based on an existing functional device. The normal sealants are
thermo-curable, photo-curable or ultrasonic curing plastics. Silicon based
thermo-curable sealants are typically used for electrical device sealing. This
type of sealant is resistant to the effects of sunlight, rain, snow, ozone, UV
and temperature extreme.

3.3 Electronic Contacts

Electronic contact is the interconnection from functional materials to

electrical driving end. Although electronic contacts come to play the role
at the end of a device assembly, it is actually started from the design of a
device and the selection of materials for fabrication at the beginning. The
electronic contacts are the communication medium between the front-plane
and the back-plane of a display device. Although it seems the work of the
back-plane of a display, the interconnection needs to be settled before the
work of the front-plane starts. The size of the electronic contacts, their
conductivity, optical properties and uniformity among contacts are all
considered and need to be satisfied to realize a fully functional device.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 482 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

3.4 Choice of Processing Technologies for Materials

Materials exist with a variety of appearances: solid or liquid or gas,

crystalline or amorphous, conductive or nonconductive, transparent
or opaque. When making a device, both the choice of materials and
the fabrication technologies are very important. For applications of the
previously discussed materials, the application in flat-panel displays are
based on film technology with or without microstructures. Based on the
process status, these technologies can be simply divided into the vacuum
deposition technology and the wet process technology. Vacuum deposition
is a family of processes used to deposit layers of material atom-by-atom or
molecule-by-molecule on a solid surface. The deposited layers can range
from a thickness of one atom up to meters. Multiple layers of different
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

materials can be applied. When the source of vapor is a liquid or solid the
process is called physical vapor deposition (PVD). When the source is a
chemical vapor precursor the process is called chemical vapor deposition
(CVD). Wet process is also called wet coating or printing, based on solution-
phase materials. The deposited layers can also range from a thickness of
one molecule to meters. Recently, the wet process has obtained extensive
attention according to its flexibility in choice of substrate materials, larger
area fabrication, and mild working conditions.
Some materials function differently when prepared via different
technologies. For example, the tungsten oxide, depending on the deposition
method, could be at a very different crystallinity which influences the
electrochromic properties essentially. Vacuum evaporation onto unheated
substrates will produce films with an amorphous structure and high degree
of porosity. Sputtering on substrates heated to 400ºC will produce dense
films with a high degree of crystallinity. Amorphous and porous films have
in general a faster switching speed and a higher optical efficiency. On the
other hand, crystalline films are more stable and will last longer.
For the display applications, when considering the large area film
deposition, the vacuum deposition technologies like electro-deposition
and thermal deposition can be applied; and the wet process technologies
of dip-coating, slit-coating and screen-printing are widely used. When
considering the resolution of a display, the micropatterning technologies
are critical. Currently, the most popular micropatterning technology is
photolithography which can create structures precisely down to a few
nanometer size, and up to micro-, mini- and centi-meters with high
flexibility. This technology is widely used in the display fabrication process
for almost all displays either for pixilation, electrodes patterning, or for both.
Other micropatterning technologies like laser writing, screen-printing and
flexography could also be applied, but with the limitations of slow process,
low resolution and thin film thickness, respectively. Recently, with the

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 483

development in both materials and fabrication technologies, wet processes

like solution-based printing technologies have been paid a lot of attention
and are developing quickly to minimize materials consumption and cost in
order to fulfill the requirements of production volume and market.

4. Summary and Perspectives

For reflective displays, the materials which can reflect visible light at
different wavelength (color) could be applied. EPDs, EWDs and LPDs show
color switching by mechanically driving different colored materials to the
front of the display. ECDs change colors by electrochemical reaction in the
electrochromic materials. ChLCDs manipulate reflection light by changing
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

its intrinsic molecular arrangement. PCDs and IMODs demonstrate

structural coloring by Bragg diffraction. These materials and functional
devices have been discussed as reflective displays in this chapter, for
which the readers can quickly catch how a material could be applied to a
functional device and how the functions of the device could be satisfied
by the advanced materials.
Reflective displays have the advantages of being applicable in both
indoor and outdoor environments, the possibility of bi-stable, low power
consumption, and easy readability due to the principle of reflecting ambient
light. Applications of visual electronic displays existing in the market
include e-readers, watches, electronic pricing labels in retail shops, digital
signages, time tables at bus stations, electronic billboards, newspaper,
mobile phone displays. Among these reflective display technologies, EPDs
have been successfully commercialized with a big market occupation; ECDs
have been successful not only in display area but also for smart window or
glasses applications; EWDs are also developing quickly to hit video-speed
reflective color display market; ChLCDs and PHDs are struggling with
some disadvantages like slow switch and weak color efficiency, but will
settle down where there is no need for high brightness and fast switching
speed; LPDs and IMODs have been highly expected and have already
brought prototypes and products to markets, but with difficult situation
due to some intrinsic properties.
The main requirements for display applications are: pixel level
controllability including reversibility, speed, brightness, power consumption
and flexibility. In order to satisfy those requirements, the material science
and technology, together with optics, electronics and physics, is forming
a multidisciplinary research community. When the corresponding large
community of interest builds around a technology, it would drive the
technology to irresistible development and maturity and the functional
materials are the key. In the future, reflective displays would be expected
to show like a paper with the speed of electronics. The desire for reflective

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 484 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

displays is very strong. The future market will not only be in the normal
electronic displays, but also expanding quickly for wearable electronic
devices, and even the bigger market for smart window/building materials.
The challenge for a display technology is not only to develop suitable
front-plane materials and processing technologies, but also the back-plane
materials like active matrix with fully functioning electronics.

References
Arman, S. 2001. Electrochromic materials for display applications: An introduction. J. New.
Mat. Electrochem. Systems 4(3): 173–179.
Arsenault, A.C., H. Miguez, V. Kitaev and G.A. Ozin. 2003. Towards photonic ink (P-Ink):
A polychrome, fast response metallopolymer gel photonic crystal device. Macromol.
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

Symp. 196: 63–69.

Arsenault, A.C., H. Miguez, V. Kitaev, G.A. Ozin and I. Manners. 2003. A polychromic, fast
response metallopolymer gel photonic crystal with solvent and redox tunability: A step
towards photonic ink (P-Ink). Adv. Mater. 15(6): 503–507.
Arsenault, A.C., D.P. Puzzo, I. Manners and G.A. Ozin. 2007. Photonic-crystal full-colour
displays. Nat. Photonics 1(8): 468–472.
Bae, S., H. Kim, Y. Lee, X. Xu, J.-S. Park, Y. Zheng, J. Balakrishnan, T. Lei, H.R. Kim, Y.I. Song,
Y.-J. Kim, K.S. Kim, B. Ozyilmaz, J.H. Ahn, B.H. Hong and S. Iijima. 2010. Roll-to-roll
production of 30-inch graphene films for transparent electrodes. Nat. Nanotechnol.
5(8): 574–578.
Bai, W.Y., Y. Wang, X.L. Song, X.Y. Jin and X.H. Guo. 2014. Modification of urea-formaldehyde
microcapsules with lignosulfonate-Ca as Co-polymer for encapsulation of acetochlor. J.
Macromol. Sci. A 51(9): 737–742.
Beni, G. and S. Hackwood. 1981. Electrowetting displays. Appl. Phys. Lett. 38(4): 207–209.
Beni, G. and M.A. Tenan. 1981. Dynamics of electrowetting displays. J. Appl. Phys.
52(10): 6011–6015.
Campardelli, R., G. Della Porta, V. Gomez, S. Irusta, E. Reverchon and J. Santamaria. 2013.
Encapsulation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in PLA microspheres using supercritical
emulsion extraction to produce bactericidal nanocomposites. J. Nanopart. Res.
15(10): 1978.
Chang, I.F., B.L. Gilbert and T.I. Sun. 1975. Electrochemichromic systems for display
applications. J. Electrochm. Sco. 122(7): 955–962.
Chevalliot, S., J. Heikenfeld, L. Clapp, A. Milarcik and S. Vilner. 2011. Analysis of nonaqueous
electrowetting fluids for displays. J. Disp. Technol. 7(12): 649–656.
Cho, S.H., Y.R. Kwon, S.K. Kim, C.H. Noh and J.Y. Lee. 2007. Electrophoretic display of
surface modified TiO2 driven by Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) Electrode. Polym.
Bull. 59(3): 331–338.
Choi, S., Y. Kwon, Y.S. Choi, E.S. Kim, J. Bae and J. Lee. 2013. Improvement in the
breakdown properties of electrowetting using polyelectrolyte ionic solution. Langmuir
29(1): 501–509.
Christophersen, M. and B.F. Phlips. 2010. Recent patents on electrophoretic displays and
materials. Recent Pat. Nanotech. 4(3): 137–149.
Comiskey, B., J.D. Albert, H. Yoshizawa and J. Jacobson. 1998. An electrophoretic ink for all-
printed reflective electronic displays. Nature 394(6690): 253–255.
Dalisa, A.L. 1977. Electrophoretic display technology. IEEE T. Electron. Dev. 24(7): 827–834.
Deb, S.K. 1969. A novel electrophotographic system. Appl. Optics 8(S1): 192–195.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 485

Fan, C.J., J.T. Tang and X.D. Zhou. 2013. Effects of process parameters on the physical properties
of poly (urea-formaldehyde) microcapsules prepared by a one-step method. Iran. Polym.
J. 22(9): 665–675.
Guang, Y. and J.K. Lee. 2013. Microcapsules containing self-healing agent with red dye.
Polym-Korea 37(3): 356–361.
Guo, X.F., Y.S. Kim and G.J. Kim. 2009. Fabrication of SiO2, Al2O3, and TiO2 microcapsules
with hollow core and mesoporous shell structure. J. Phys. Chem. C 113(19): 8313–8319.
Han, B., Y. Huang, R. Li, Q. Peng, J. Luo, K. Pei, A. Herczynski, K. Kempa, Z. Ren and J. Gao.
2014. Bio-inspired networks for optoelectronic applications. Nat. Commun. 5.
Hayes, R.A. and B.J. Feenstra. 2003. Video-speed electronic paper based on electrowetting.
Nature 425(6956): 383–385.
Heikenfeld, J., N. Smith, M. Dhindsa, K. Zhou, M. Kilaru, L.L. Hou, J.L. Zhang, E. Kreit and
B. Raj. 2009. Recent Progress in Arrayed Electrowetting Optics. OPN 4: 20–26.
Heikenfeld, J., K. Zhou, E. Kreit, B. Raj, S. Yang, B. Sun, A. Milarcik, L. Clapp and R. Schwartz.
2009. Electrofluidic displays using Young–Laplace transposition of brilliant pigment
dispersions. Nat. Photonics 3(5): 292–296.
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

Henzen, A. 2009. Development of E-paper color display technologies. Sid. Int. Symp. Dig.
Tec.: 28–30.
Hongbo, L., Z. Jun, S. Zhigang, Z. Guobing, W. Xianghua, Q. Longzhen and L. Guoqiang.
2014. Submillisecond-response light shutter for solid-state volumetric 3D display based
on polymer-stabilized cholesteric texture. J. Disp. Technol. 10(5): 396–400.
Huitema, E., G. Gelinck, P. van Lieshout, E. van Veenendaal and F. Touwslager. 2005. Flexible
electronic-paper active-matrix displays. J. Soc. Inf. Display 13(3): 181–185.
Huitema, H.E.A., G.H. Gelinck, P.J.G. van Lieshout, E. van Veenendaal and F.J. Touwslager.
2006. Flexible electronic-paper active-matrix displays. J. Soc. Inf. Display 14(8): 729–733.
Ikeda, T. and J.F. Stoddart. 2008. Electrochromic materials using mechanically interlocked
molecules. Sci. Technol. Adv. Mat. 9(1): 014104.
Jackel, J.L., S. Hackwood and G. Beni. 1982. Electrowetting optical switch. Appl. Phys. Lett.
40(1): 4–6.
Jackel, J.L., S. Hackwood, J.J. Veselka and G. Beni. 1983. Electrowetting switch for multimode
optical fibers. Appl. Opt. 22(11): 1765–1770.
Kim, Y.H., D.W. Kim, R.I. Murakami, D. Zhang, S.W. Yoon, S.H. Park and K.M. Moon. 2011.
The study of transmittance and conductivity by top ZnO thickness in ZnO/Ag/ZnO
transparent conducting oxide films. Adv. Sci. Lett. 4(4-5): 1570–1573.
Lenssen, K.M.H., P.J. Baesjou, F.P.M. Budzelaar, M.H.W.M. van Delden, S.J. Roosendaal, L.W.G.
Stofteel, A.R.M. Verschueren, J.J. van Glabbeek, J.T.M. Osenga and R.M. Schuurbiers.
2008. Invited paper: Novel design for full-color electronic paper. Sid. Int. Symp. Dig.
Tec. 39: 685–688.
Li, H.Y., R.G. Wang and W.B. Liu. 2011. Toughening self-healing epoxy resin by addition of
microcapsules. Polym. Polym. Compos. 19(2-3): 223–226.
Li, J., S.J. Wang, H.Y. Liu, N. Liu and L. You. 2011. Preparation and application of Poly(melamine-
urea-formaldehyde) microcapsules filled with sulfur. Polym-Plast. Technol. 50(7): 689–697.
Li, J., S.J. Wang, H.Y. Liu, L. You and S.K. Wang. 2012. Preparation of Poly(urea-formaldehyde)
microcapsules containing sulfur by in situ polymerization. Asian J. Chem. 24(1): 93–100.
Malk, R., Y. Fouillet and L. Davoust. 2011. Rotating flow within a droplet actuated with AC
EWOD. Sens. Actuators, B 154(2): 191–198.
Mao, J., H. Yang and X. Zhou. 2012. In situ polymerization of uniform poly(urea-formaldehyde)
microcapsules containing paraffins under the high-speed agitation without emulsifier.
Polym. Bull. 69(6): 649–660.
Massard, R., J. Mans, A. Adityaputra, R. Leguijt, C. Staats and A. Giraldo. 2013. Colored oil
for electrowetting displays. J. Inform. Disp. 14(1): 1–6.
Miles, M.W. 1997. A new reflective FPD technology using interferometric modulation. J. Soc.
Info. Display 5(4): 379–382.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 486 Design, Fabrication, Properties and Applications of Smart and Advanced Materials

Moon, H., S.K. Cho, R.L. Garrell and C.J. Kim. 2002. Low voltage electrowetting-on-dielectric.
J. Appl. Phys. 92(7): 4080–4087.
Mortimer, R.J. 2011. Electrochromic materials. Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 41: 241–268.
Murau, P. and B. Singer. 1978. The understanding and elimination of some suspension
instabilities in an electrophoretic display. J. Appl. Phys. 49(9): 4820–4829.
Nagamine, S., A. Sugioka and Y. Konishi. 2007. Preparation of TiO2 hollow microparticles by
spraying water droplets into an organic solution of titanium tetraisopropoxide. Mater.
Lett. 61(2): 444–447.
Oh, S.W. and T.H. Yoon. 2014. Fast bistable switching of a cholesteric liquid crystal device
induced by application of an in-plane electric field. Appl. Opt. 53(31): 7321–7324.
Orsaev, A.M., T.M. Orsaev and D.S. Gaev. 2000. New reflective type electrophoretic display.
SPIE 4511: 190–192.
Ota, I., J. Ohnishi and M. Yoshiyam. 1973. Electrophoretic image display (Epid) panel. P. IEEE
61(7): 832–836.
Papathanasiou, A.G., A.T. Papaioannou and A.G. Boudouvis. 2008. Illuminating the connection
between contact angle saturation and dielectric breakdown in electrowetting through
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

leakage current measurements. J. Appl. Phys. 103(3): 034901.

Park, S.J., Y.S. Shin and J.R. Lee. 2001. Preparation and characterization of microcapsules
containing lemon oil. J. Colloid Interf. Sci. 241(2): 502–508.
Ploix, J.L. and M. Moulin. 1976. Electrophoretic display device. J. Electrochem. Soc.
123(8): C257–C257.
Sakurai, R., S. Ohno, S.I. Kita, Y. Masuda and R. Hattori. 2006. Color and flexible electronic
paper display using QR-LPD technology. Sid. Int. Symp. Dig. Tec. 37(1): 1922–1925.
Sgraja, M., J. Blomer, J. Bertling and P.J. Jansens. 2010. Thermal and structural characterization
of TiO2 and TiO2/Polymer micro hollow spheres. Chem. Eng. Technol. 33(12): 2029–2036.
Smith, N.R., L.L. Hou, J.L. Zhang and J. Heikenfeld. 2009. Fabrication and demonstration of
electrowetting liquid lens arrays. J. Disp. Technol. 5(11): 411–413.
Song, J.K., H.J. Choi and I. Chin. 2007. Preparation and properties of electrophoretic
microcapsules for electronic paper. J. Microencapsul. 24(1): 11–19.
Song, J.K., H.C. Kang, K.S. Kim and I.J. Chin. 2007. Microcapsules by complex coacervation
for electronic ink. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 464: 845–851.
Song, J.K., H.J. Myoung, K. Kim, J.H. Sung, H.J. Choi and I.J. Chin. 2005. Preparation of TiO2
based microcapsules for electrophoretic ink. Abstr. Pap. Am. Chem. S. 229: U1138–U1138.
Song, Y.K. and C.M. Chung. 2013. Repeatable self-healing of a microcapsule-type protective
coating. Polym. Chem. 4(18): 4940–4947.
Staicu, A. and F. Mugele. 2006. Electrowetting-induced oil film entrapment and instability.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 97(16): 167801.
Strohm, H., M. Sgraja, J. Bertling and P. Lobmann. 2003. Preparation of TiO2-polymer hybrid
microcapsules. J. Mater. Sci. 38(8): 1605–1609.
Suk-Hwan, J., K. Jang-Kyum, K. Hoon, S. Ki-Chul, K. Heesub and S. Jang-Kun. 2014. Tri-Stable
polarization switching of fluorescent light using photo-luminescent cholesteric liquid
crystals. Mol. Cryst. Liquid Cryst. 601: 29–35.
Sun, B., K. Zhou, Y. Lao, J. Heikenfeld and W. Cheng. 2007. Scalable fabrication of electrowetting
displays with self-assembled oil dosing. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91(1): 011106.
Sun, G. and Z. Zhang. 2002. Mechanical strength of microcapsules made of different wall
materials. Int. J. Pharm. 242(1-2): 307–311.
Suryanarayana, C., K.C. Rao and D. Kumar. 2008. Preparation and characterization of
microcapsules containing linseed oil and its use in self-healing coatings. Prog. Org.
Coat. 63(1): 72–78.
Tan, T.F., S.R. Wang, S.G. Bian, X.G. Li, Y. An and Z.J. Liu. 2010. Novel synthesis and
electrophoretic response of low density TiO-TiO2-carbon black composite. Appl. Surf.
Sci. 256(22): 6932–6935.
Tseng, W.J. and P.S. Chao. 2013. Synthesis and photocatalysis of TiO2 hollow spheres by a
facile template-implantation route. Ceram. Int. 39(4): 3779–3787.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Advanced Materials for Reflective Display Applications 487

Wang, D.W. and X.P. Zhao. 2009. Microencapsulated electric ink using gelatin/gum arabic. J.
Microencapsul. 26(1): 37–45.
Wang, S.R., Y.M. Mei, X.G. Li and T.F. Tan. 2012. Preparation of high efficiency hollow TiO2
nanospheres for electrophoretic displays. Mater. Lett. 74: 1–4.
Wang, Y. and B. Fugetsu. 2015. Mono-dispersed ultra-long single-walled carbon nanotubes
as enabling components in transparent and electrically conductive thin films. Carbon
82: 152–160.
Werts, M.P.L., M. Badila, C. Brochon, A. Hebraud and G. Hadziioannou. 2008. Titanium
dioxide-polymer core-shell particles dispersions as electronic inks for electrophoretic
displays. Chem. Mater. 20(4): 1292–1298.
Woo Sik, K., M. Sook Young, K. Hui Jin, P. Sungjin, J. Koyanagi and H. Hoon. 2014. Large-
scale graphene-based composite films for flexible transparent electrodes fabricated by
electrospray deposition. Mat. Res. Exp. 1(4): 046404.
Wu, Z.C., Z.H. Chen, X. Du, J.M. Logan, J. Sippel, M. Nikolou, K. Kamaras, J.R. Reynolds,
D.B. Tanner, A.F. Hebard and A.G. Rinzler. 2004. Transparent, conductive carbon nanotube
films. Science 305(5688): 1273–1276.
Downloaded by [MIT Libraries] at 08:11 30 June 2016

Xing, R.Y., Q.Y. Zhang and J.L. Sun. 2012. Preparation and properties of self-healing
microcapsules containing an UV-curable oligomers of silicone. Polym. Polym. Compos.
20(1-2): 77–82.
Yang, D.K., J.L. West, L.C. Chien and J.W. Doane. 1994. Control of reflectivity and bistability
in displays using cholesteric liquid crystals. J. Appl. Phys. 76(2): 1331–1333.
You, H. and A.J. Steckl. 2010. Three-color electrowetting display device for electronic paper.
Appl. Phys. Lett. 97(2).
Yu, C.J., S.I. Jo, Y.J. Lee and J.H. Kim. 2014. Continuous pitch stabilization of cholesteric liquid
crystals and display applications. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 594(1): 63–69.
Yu, D.G. and J.H. An. 2004. Titanium dioxide core/polymer shell hybrid composite particles
prepared by two-step dispersion polymerization. Colloid. Surface. A 237(1-3): 87–93.
Yu, D.G., S.H. Kim and J.H. An. 2007. Preparation and characterization of electronic inks
encapsulation for microcapsule-type electrophoretic displays (EPDs). J. Industr. Eng.
Chem. 13(3): 438–443.
Yuan, L., A.J. Gu, S. Nutt, J.Y. Wu, C. Lin, F. Chen and G.Z. Liang. 2013. Novel polyphenylene
oxide microcapsules filled with epoxy resins. Polym. Advan. Technol. 24(1): 81–89.
Zandi, M., S.A. Hashemi, P. Aminayi and F. Hosseinali. 2011. Microencapsulation of disperse
dye particles with nano film coating through layer by layer technique. J. Appl. Polym.
Sci. 119(1): 586–594.

© 2016 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

View publication stats