(Hydroxypropyl)cellulose (HPC)/vinyl polymer networks were synthesized in film form from liquid-crystalline solutions of HPC in a mixed solvent of methacrylate monomer/methanol/water (2:1:2 in weight) containing cross-linking agents, via photopolymerization of the methacrylate monomer. Di(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate (DEGMEM) or 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) was used as the polymerizing monomer, and tetra(ethylene glycol) diacrylate and glutaraldehyde were the cross-linkers for the monomers and HPC, respectively. The polymer composite films, HPC/PDEGMEM and HPC/PHPMA, prepared at ca. 60-70 wt % concentrations of HPC in the starting solutions, were iridescently colored due to the selective light reflection, originating from the cholesteric helical arrangement carried over successively into the network system. When the cholesteric films were immersed and swollen in water containing an inorganic neutral salt, their coloration and optical turbidity varied according to a strength of 'chaotropicity' of the impregnant ions. This ionic effect may be interpreted as essentially identical with that found formerly in the coexistent salt-sort dependence of the cholesteric pitch and lower critical solution temperature for HPC aqueous solutions. It is also demonstrated that visual appearance of the swollen networks can be changed by application of an electric potential of practical magnitude between both edges of the samples of rectangular shape.

Addition effects of N-alkyl-substituted methylimidazolium salts ([CnMim][X]) on the mesophase structure and lower critical solution temperature (LCST)-type phase-separation behavior of concentrated hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) aqueous solutions were investigated mainly by spectrophotometry. In the cholesteric mesophase formation, at concentrations of more than 50 wt% HPC, helical pitch (P) was confirmed to shift upward according to the chaotropic strength of X -, for example, in a manner satisfying the order of Cl À oBr À oNO 3 À oI À . Organocations generally elevated P relative to the nonionic reference, the effectiveness being pronounced in the order ofWith regard to LCST behavior, imidazolium additives raised the cloud point (T c ) in the isotropic solutions of p40 wt% HPC, whereas the T c value of mesomorphic solutions was prone to be lowered by the addition. Discussion of these observations took into consideration the differences in the N-alkyl structure and amphiphilic nature between cationic imidazolium varieties, as well as the difference in the chaotropic strength between the counter anions. It was also exemplified preliminarily that this kind of salt-containing lyotropic system of HPC exercised an electro-optical function when coupled with an electric circuit.