Patent ID: 7316829

Claim:
A liquid crystal composition comprising at least a dichroic dye and a host liquid crystal, and further comprising particles of solid matter having an average particle diameter of 1 nm to 10 μm, wherein the dichroic dye has a substituent represented by the following formula (1): -(Het) j -{(B 1 ) p -(Q 1 ) q -(B 2 ) r } n —C 1 Formula (1): wherein Het is an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom; B 1 and B 2 each independently represent an arylene group, a heteroarylene group, or a divalent cyclic aliphatic hydrocarbon group; Q 1 represents a divalent linking group; C 1 represents an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an alkoxy group, an alkoxycarbonyl group, an acyl group, or an acyloxy group; j represents 0 or 1; p, q, and r represent an integer of 0 to 5, respectively; n represents an integer of 1 to 3; the sum of the groups represented by B 1 and B 2 is an integer of 3 to 10; when p, q and r are respectively 2 or greater, two or more of B 1 , Q 1 or B 2 may be the same or different; when n is 2 or greater, two or more of {(B 1 ) p -(Q 1 ) q -(B 2 ) r } may be the same or different.