Abstract
Birefringence and its wavelength dependence are important properties for optical applications, such as liquid crystal displays and pick-up lenses. Cellulose esters, which are eco-friendly materials from biomass resources, have been used in optical materials due to their transparency and heat resistance. This review summarized our recent works on birefringence control of cellulose esters by substitution of multiple ester groups, addition of low-mass molecules, and formation of a porous structure. Cellulose acetate propionate (CAP), which has acetyl and propionyl groups in a pyranose unit, exhibited positive birefringence with extraordinary wavelength dispersion owing to contributions from its two esters, while cellulose triacetate (CTA) showed negative birefringence with ordinary dispersion. Moreover, the effect of substitution sites (C-2, C-3, and C-6) on birefringence and its wavelength dependence was investigated by comparing birefringence data of CTA and xylan acetate. The addition of low-mass molecules improved the value of birefringence due to the intermolecular orientation correlation with the matrix cellulose esters. The anisotropic porous structure in CTA films, which was prepared by thermoinduced phase separation, generated extraordinary wavelength dispersion of birefringence.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partly supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers 23850008 and 25870268) and grants from the Ogasawara Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Engineering and the Kyoto Technoscience Center. We express sincere gratitude to Professor Masayuki Yamaguchi for his continuous and kind guidance and to Professor Tadahisa Iwata, Professor Yukiko Enomoto, Dr. Songsurang Kultida, Dr. Hikaru Shimada, Mr. Hiroki Hayashi, Mr. Yoshihiko Aoki, Mr. Akichika Nakao, and other colleagues for their great efforts toward these works.
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Nobukawa, S. Design of birefringence and its wavelength dispersion for cellulose derivatives using substitution, low-mass additives, and porous structures. Polym J 51, 835–843 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-019-0199-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-019-0199-y
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