Claims
- 1. An optical element comprising substrate with a surface feature having a roughness average (Ra) of from 1 to 200 micrometers containing a dispersion of minute layered particulates in a polymer binder.
- 2. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said optical element has a top and bottom surface containing said surface feature.
- 3. The optical element of claim 1 wherein the roughness average is between 5 and 50 micrometers.
- 4. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature is ordered.
- 5. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature is random.
- 6. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature comprises a prism.
- 7. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature comprises a corner cube.
- 8. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature comprises a linear array of curved surfaces.
- 9. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature comprises complex lenses.
- 10. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said surface feature comprises lenses with at least one curved surface and one planner surface.
- 11. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said optical element exhibits a light transmission greater than 80%.
- 12. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said optical element exhibits a haze greater than 50%.
- 13. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said optical element exhibits a haze less than 10%.
- 14. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said minute layered particulates are integral to the surface feature.
- 15. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said minute layered particulates are in a layer adjacent to the surface feature.
- 16. The optical element of claim 1 wherein transmitted light has greater than 200 index of refraction changes of at least 0.02 in the direction of light travel.
- 17. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates have an aspect ratio aspect ratio of the largest to the smallest dimension of the particulates >110:1.
- 18. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates have an aspect ratio between 10:1 and 1000:1.
- 19. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates are present in an amount between 1 and 10% by weight of said binder.
- 20. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates are present in an amount between 1.5 and 5% by weight of said binder.
- 21. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates comprise smectite clay.
- 22. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates comprise layered double hydroxide.
- 23. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates comprise mica.
- 24. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates comprise intercalated layered materials.
- 25. The optical element of claim 21 wherein said smectite clay comprises synthetic smectite clay.
- 26. The optical element of claim 21 wherein said smectite clay comprises organoclay.
- 27. The optical element of claim 21 wherein said smectite clay comprises intercalated smectite clay.
- 28. The optical element of claim 27 wherein said intercalated smectite clay comprises oxylated alcohol intercalated in smectite clay.
- 29. The optical element of claim 28 wherein said oxylated alcohol comprises ethoxylated alcohol.
- 30. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said binder comprises at polyester.
- 31. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said binder comprises polyolefin.
- 32. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said binder comprises polycarbonate.
- 33. The optical element of claim 1 wherein the elastic modulus of the optical element is greater than 500 MPa.
- 34. The optical element of claim 1 wherein the impact resistance of the optical element is greater than 0.6 GPa.
- 35. The optical element of claim 1 wherein said layered particulates are present in an amount between 0.1 and 1% by weight of said binder.
- 36. The optical element of claim 1 wherein the optical component comprises two or more layers.
- 37. The optical element of claim 27 wherein said intercalated smectite clay comprises block copolymer intercalated in smectite clay.
- 38. The optical element of claim 37 wherein said block copolymer further comprises a hydrophilic block that intercalates clay.
- 39. The optical element of claim 37 wherein said block copolymer further comprises an oleophilic block.
- 40. The optical element of claim 38 wherein said hydrophilic block comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of poly(alkylene oxide), poly 6, (2-ethyloxazolines), poly(ethyleneimine), poly(vinylpyrrolidone), poly (vinyl alcohol), polyacrylamides, polyacrylonitrile, polysaccharides, and dextrans.
- 41. The optical element of claim 38 wherein said hydrophilic block comprises poly(ethylene oxide).
- 42. The optical element of claim 39 wherein said oleophilic block comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of polycaprolactone, polypropiolactone, poly β-butyrolactone; poly δ-valerolactone; poly ε-caprolactam; polylactic acid; polyglycolic acid; polyhydroxybutyric acid; derivatives of polylysine; and derivatives of polyglutamic acid, polymers of α, β-ethylenically unsaturated monomers.
- 43. The optical element of claim 39 wherein said oleophilic block comprises polyester.
- 44. The optical element of claim 39 wherein said oleophilic block comprises polycaprolactone.
- 45. The optical element of claim 39 wherein said oleophilic block comprises polyamide.
- 46. The optical element of claim 39 wherein said oleophilic block comprises polystyrene.
- 47. The optical component of claim 1 wherein the minute particulate materials have a lateral dimension of 0.01 to 5 μm and a thickness of 0.5 to 10 nm.
- 48. The optical component of claim 1 wherein the layered minute particulate materials have a basal plane spacing of from 1 to 9 nm.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is one of a group of five related commonly assigned applications co-filed herewith under Attorney Docket Nos. 84336A, 84411, 84446, 84471, and 84396, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.