Development of Highly Soluble Anthraquinone Dichroic Dyes and Their Application to Three-Layer Guest-Host Liquid Crystal Displays

Therelationships between molecular structures and properties of anthraquinone dichroic dyes were studied and dyes with large solubilities and dichroic ratios were developed. The yellow anthraquinone dye behaves as a quencher of the coumarin dye, and the mixture has a large absorption coefficient without fluorescence. These technologies can enlarge the color reproduction area of three-layer guest-host liquid crystal displays (GH-LCDs) 1.6-fold. The performances of the prototype reflective three-layer GH-LCDs are as follows: the white state luminous reflectance is 43% and the contrast is 5.3, indicating that they are promising candidates for portable information systems with full-color images.