Patent ID: 8357744

Claim:
A translucent, white, light-diffusing thermoplastic composition comprising, in blended form, a) a thermoplastic matrix polymer selected from the group consisting of polycarbonate, polystyrene (PS), high impact polystyrene (HIPS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), PVDF-acrylic copolymers, imidized acrylic polymers, cyclic olefin copolymers (COC), polyolefins, impact modified polyolefins, polyesters, styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), acrylonitrile-acrylate copolymers, acrylonitrile-methyl methacrylate copolymer, methyl methacrylate-styrene copolymer, styrenic polymers or copolymers containing alpha-methyl styrene, polyethylene terephthalate-glycol modified (PETG), methacrylate-butadiene-styrene terpolymer, acrylonitrile-styrene-acrylate (ASA) terpolymer, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) terpolymer, polycyclo-hexylethylene, and blends thereof; b) 0.1 to 5 weight percent of one or more white pigments; and c) 0.3 to 15 weight percent of refractive index-matched polymer particles, wherein said refractive index-matched polymer particles have a refractive index within 0.02 units of said thermoplastic matrix polymer, wherein said composition is in the form of a sheet, film, profile or pellet, wherein a 0.080 inch thick sheet of said light-diffusing composition has a luminous transmission of greater than 60%, a hiding power of greater than 0.8, a diffusion factor of greater than 0.62, and a half gain angle of at least 50 degrees.