Electronic ink microcapsule, electronic ink, preparation method and flexible display screen
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of electronic ink, and particularly relates to an electronic ink microcapsule, electronic ink, a preparation method and a flexible display screen.
Background
The microcapsule is a micro-container with polymer or inorganic wall, and through microcapsule pelletizing technology, solid, liquid or gas may be embedded and sealed into one solid microcapsule. In 1997, the institute of technology (MIT) media laboratory proposed the concept of microencapsulated electronic ink (Encapsulated electrophoretic ink), i.e., microencapsulated electrophoretic display technology (Encapsulated electrophoretic display). On the basis of electrophoretic display, the method creatively microencapsulates the electrophoresis base liquid, not only inhibits the defects of agglomeration, deposition and the like of electrophoresis colloidal particles in a range larger than the capsule scale, but also realizes electrophoretic display in the microcapsule, improves the stability and prolongs the service life. Because the electronic ink microcapsule is used in electronic equipment, the mechanical strength and the temperature resistance are particularly important, melamine-formaldehyde resin and urea resin are generally selected to be used as wall materials when the microcapsule is prepared, and the low-cost resin can provide excellent mechanical properties to protect the microcapsule from being broken and invalid due to external factors, but can generate a large amount of aldehyde substances to endanger health, and can be quickly aged and decomposed in a high-temperature environment to lose the original effect, once the wall materials are damaged and broken, the display particle materials can be quickly lost, and the electronic ink display device is disabled.
Chinese patent CN201910991846.9 discloses a method for preparing microcapsule electronic ink, the first layer of the invention uses polyurea resin as wall material, titanium dioxide as core material, spray drying method is adopted to coat the polyurea resin on the titanium dioxide, the second layer uses urea-formaldehyde as raw material, in situ polymerization method is adopted to prepare double-layer microcapsule, which increases the thickness of microcapsule wall, improves the toughness and strength of microcapsule wall, the double-layer capsule has double-layer structure similar to eggshell, improves the scratch resistance and pressure resistance of microcapsule, but the process is complex, the microcapsule transparency is relatively low, in addition, formaldehyde is used as capsule wall material, the high temperature is easy to decompose, and the production and use process are not friendly to environment.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the defects of the prior art, the invention provides the electronic ink microcapsule, the electronic ink and the preparation method, which are formaldehyde-free and environment-friendly, and can provide excellent mechanical property and heat resistance under the precondition that microcapsule cores fully play a role, ensure that microcapsule materials of the electronic ink microcapsule cannot flow out and be lost due to breakage of microcapsule wall materials in the use process, and greatly improve the heat resistance of the microcapsule so as to resist the high-temperature extreme environment in the outside and electronic equipment.
In order to achieve the above purpose, the technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows:
the first aspect of the invention provides an electronic ink microcapsule, which consists of a wall material and a capsule core, wherein the wall material comprises a polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer, the polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer is formed by synthesizing a wall material prepolymer from an isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer and a hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane, and then crosslinking and curing the wall material prepolymer under the action of an alcohol chain extender and an amine chain extender.
Preferably, the capsule core comprises a dispersing agent, an organic solvent, a surfactant and display particles which are coated in the wall material.
Preferably, the average molecular weight of the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer is 2500 to 10000, and the average polymerization degree of the hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane is 5 to 10; the molar ratio of the two is about 2:1.
Preferably, the alcohol chain extender is one or more of 1, 4-Butanediol (BDO), 1, 6-hexanediol, ethylene glycol, glycerol, trimethylolpropane, diethylene glycol (DEG), triethylene glycol, neopentyl glycol (NPG), sorbitol, diethylaminoethanol (DEAE), and the amine chain extender is one or more of MOCA, ethylenediamine (DA), diethylenetriamine (DETA), tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), N-dihydroxy (diisopropyl) aniline (HPA).
Preferably, the weight ratio of the wall material to the capsule core is 1:0.5 to 1:2.
the second aspect of the invention provides electronic ink comprising the electronic ink microcapsule.
In a third aspect, the present invention provides a flexible display screen, including an electronic ink layer, where the electronic ink layer includes the electronic ink.
The fourth aspect of the invention provides a method for preparing an electronic ink microcapsule, which comprises the following steps:
1) Synthesizing a wall material prepolymer by using isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer and hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane:
2) Preparing a capsule core solution, adding the wall material prepolymer obtained in the step 1), and uniformly mixing to obtain an oil phase solution;
3) Adding the oil phase solution obtained in the step 2) into an aqueous solution of a styrene-maleic anhydride block copolymer, and stirring at a high speed to form an oil-in-water O/W emulsion;
4) Adding an alcohol chain extender and an amine chain extender into the emulsion, heating and maintaining stirring to form a polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer wall material on the interface of emulsion liquid drops;
5) And then heating up for reaction, filtering, washing and drying after the reaction is finished to obtain microcapsule powder.
Preferably, the reaction temperature in step 1) is 90 ℃.
Preferably, the temperature is raised to 50-60 ℃ in step 4).
Preferably, in step 5), the temperature is raised to 90-95 ℃ and the reaction is carried out for 3-5 hours.
Preferably, the core solution comprises a dispersant, an organic solvent, a surfactant, and display particles.
Preferably, the alcohol chain extender is one or more of 1, 4-Butanediol (BDO), 1, 6-hexanediol, ethylene glycol, glycerol, trimethylolpropane, diethylene glycol (DEG), triethylene glycol, neopentyl glycol (NPG), sorbitol, diethylaminoethanol (DEAE), and the amine chain extender is one or more of MOCA, ethylenediamine (DA), diethylenetriamine (DETA), tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), N-dihydroxy (diisopropyl) aniline (HPA).
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following outstanding effects:
the invention solves the problems that the existing electronic ink microcapsule can generate a large amount of aldehydes to harm health, and can be rapidly aged and decomposed in a high-temperature environment so as to lose the original effect. According to the preparation method of the electronic ink microcapsule, a catalyst is not required to be added, the prepared ink microcapsule has the advantages of quick and simple preparation, good thermal stability, no deformation and no stretching in a high-temperature environment of 200 ℃, and no aldehyde substance harmful to health; the capsule has good mechanical properties, can keep the integrity and elasticity of the capsule body under the impact of external force to protect the capsule core material and is isolated from the external environment, and the capsule core material can not run off even if the capsule wall is damaged under the influence of the great external force; meanwhile, the capsule wall is thin, and has good light transmission performance, so that the color of the capsule core is effectively displayed. The electronic ink prepared by the electronic ink microcapsule has high stability, and has good and clear display effect when applied to a flexible display screen.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image of the electronic ink microcapsule prepared in example 1.
Fig. 2 is a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image of the electronic ink microcapsule prepared in the comparative example.
Detailed Description
The current preparation method of the electronic ink microcapsule basically comprises the process steps of pigment particle surface modification treatment, capsule core solution preparation, electronic ink microcapsule preparation and the like. In the preparation of the electronic ink microcapsule, the pigment particles used may be organic or inorganic pigments such as titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, zirconium oxide, black pigments such as carbon black, nigrosine, etc. In actual use, the colorant may impart a target color to the yin-yang particles, and the colored pigments include red, blue, brown, green, and the like. In the following embodiments, white pigments such as titanium dioxide or other colors such as red, yellow, blue, green, etc. are used.
In the preparation process of the capsule core solution, polyoxyethylene lauric acid is used as a charge control agent, and modified pigment particles are dispersed in a solution compounded by sec-butylbenzene dyed with blue dye or not dyed with dye and tetrachloroethylene to form a charged and stable capsule core solution.
Dispersing the prepared electronic ink microcapsule in a dispersion medium to obtain the electronic ink, wherein the dispersion medium comprises but is not limited to: halogenated organic solvents, tetrafluoro-dibromo-ethylene, tetrachloroethylene, 1,2, 4-trichlorobenzene, carbon tetrachloride. The low density material is one or more of hydrocarbons, dodecane, tetradecane, aliphatic hydrocarbon series, silanes, decane-based siloxane, polyphenol-based siloxane, heptyl-based siloxane, etc. Dyes may be added to the electronic ink to reduce light reflection and improve display contrast. The common dyes include azo dyes, oil-soluble red, sudan red and sudan black series, anthraquinone dyes 361, oil-soluble Blue, macrolex Blue series, triarylmethane, malachite green, crystal violet, etc. Charge inhibitors and stabilizers may also be added to the electronic ink to improve display particle electrophoretic properties and space temperature properties. The charge control agent may be an organic sulfate or sulfonate, a metal soap, an organic amide, an organic phosphate or phosphate, or a polymer or graft copolymer and monomers thereof. The stabilizer comprises nonionic trimethylamine ethyl lactone, phospholipid, lecithin, polyoxyethylene, olefin oxide, alkyl dimethylamine oxide, sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, sodium dodecyl sulfate, dodecyl dimethyl propyl ammonium chloride, propyl trimethoxy chloride, trimethoxy propyl ammonium chloride and the like.
The present invention will be described in detail with reference to specific examples. The following examples will assist those skilled in the art in further understanding the present invention, but are not intended to limit the invention in any way. It should be noted that variations and modifications could be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the inventive concept. These are all within the scope of the present invention.
Example 1
After the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer with the average large molecular weight of 5000 is completely dehydrated, 100g of the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer is weighed and put into a three-neck flask, the temperature is raised to 90 ℃ under the protection of nitrogen, slow stirring is maintained, meanwhile, 3.1g of hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane with the average polymerization degree of 5 is weighed and slowly added dropwise after the complete dehydration, and the wall material prepolymer is obtained after the reaction for 6 hours.
And after the wall material prepolymer is cooled to room temperature, 60g of the capsule core solution and 30g of the wall material prepolymer are weighed and fully and uniformly stirred.
Adding the oil phase solution into an aqueous solution of a styrene-maleic anhydride segmented copolymer, stirring at a high speed to form an oil-in-water O/W emulsion, slowly dripping 15g of diethylenetriamine into the emulsion, heating to 60 ℃ and maintaining stirring, forming a polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer wall material on the interface of emulsion liquid drops, heating to 95 ℃ for reacting for 3 hours, filtering and washing microcapsule powder after the reaction is completed, and heating and drying for 24 hours at 60 ℃ to obtain the electronic ink microcapsule.
As shown in fig. 1, a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) determines that the appearance of the prepared electronic ink microcapsule is in a complete microcapsule monodisperse state.
Example 2
After the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer with the average large molecular weight of 10000 is completely dehydrated, 200g of the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer is weighed and put into a three-neck flask, the temperature is raised to 90 ℃ under the protection of nitrogen, slow stirring is maintained, meanwhile, 5.3g of hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane with the average polymerization degree of 10 is weighed and slowly added dropwise after the complete dehydration, and the reaction is carried out for 8 hours, thus obtaining the wall material prepolymer.
And after the wall material prepolymer is cooled to room temperature, weighing 15g of the capsule core solution and 30g of the wall material prepolymer, and fully and uniformly stirring.
Adding the oil phase solution into an aqueous solution of a styrene-maleic anhydride segmented copolymer, stirring at a high speed to form an oil-in-water O/W emulsion, slowly dripping 8g of ethylenediamine into the emulsion, heating to 50 ℃ and maintaining stirring, forming a polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer wall material on the interface of emulsion liquid drops, heating to 95 ℃ for reacting for 5 hours, filtering and washing microcapsule powder after the reaction is completed, and heating and drying for 18 hours at 80 ℃ to obtain the electronic ink microcapsule.
Example 3
After the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer with the average large molecular weight of 2500 is completely dehydrated, 80g of the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer is weighed and put into a three-neck flask, the temperature is raised to 90 ℃ under the protection of nitrogen, slow stirring is maintained, meanwhile, after the hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane with the average polymerization degree of 10 is completely dehydrated, 2.2g of the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer is weighed and slowly added dropwise, and the reaction is carried out for 5 hours, thus obtaining the wall material prepolymer.
After the wall material prepolymer is cooled to room temperature, 30g of the capsule core solution and 30g of the wall material prepolymer are weighed and fully and uniformly stirred.
Adding the oil phase solution into an aqueous solution of a styrene-maleic anhydride segmented copolymer, stirring at a high speed to form an oil-in-water O/W emulsion, slowly dripping 12g of ethylenediamine into the emulsion, heating to 50 ℃ and maintaining stirring, forming a polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer wall material on the interface of emulsion liquid drops, heating to 90 ℃ for reacting for 5 hours, filtering and washing microcapsule powder after the reaction is completed, and heating and drying for 24 hours at 60 ℃ to obtain the electronic ink microcapsule.
Comparative example 1
After the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer with the average large molecular weight of 5000 is completely dehydrated, 100g of the isocyanate-terminated polyurethane prepolymer is weighed and put into a three-neck flask, the temperature is raised to 90 ℃ under the protection of nitrogen, slow stirring is maintained, meanwhile, 3.1g of hydroxyl-terminated polysiloxane with the average polymerization degree of 5 is weighed and slowly added dropwise after the complete dehydration, and the reaction is carried out for 5 hours, thus obtaining the wall material prepolymer.
And after the wall material prepolymer is cooled to room temperature, 60g of the capsule core solution and 30g of the wall material prepolymer are weighed and fully and uniformly stirred.
Adding the oil phase solution into an aqueous solution of a styrene-maleic anhydride segmented copolymer, stirring at a high speed to form an oil-in-water O/W emulsion, slowly dripping 15g of diethylenetriamine and 0.2g of organic bismuth into the emulsion, heating to 60 ℃ and maintaining stirring, forming a polysiloxane modified polyurea-polyurethane copolymer wall material on an emulsion droplet interface, heating to 95 ℃ for reacting for 3 hours, filtering and washing microcapsule powder after the reaction is completed, and heating and drying for 24 hours at 60 ℃ to obtain the electronic ink microcapsule.
As shown in fig. 2, a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) determines that the appearance of the prepared electronic ink microcapsule is in a complete microcapsule monodisperse state. Compared with the electronic ink microcapsule prepared in the example 1, the electronic ink microcapsule prepared by adding the catalyst has higher integrity.