Investigation of dielectric and electro-optical properties of nematic liquid crystal with the suspension of biowaste-based porous carbon nanoparticles

ABSTRACT

The effect of biowaste porous carbon nanoparticles (PCNPs) on the dielectric and electro-optical properties of nematic liquid crystal (LC) mixture (1823A) of 4-(4-alkyl-cyclohexyl) benzene isothiocyanates and 4-(4-alkyl-cyclohexyl) biphenyl isothiocyanates has been studied. The dielectric permittivity of nematic LC has been increased with the dispersion of carbon NPs. The dielectric anisotropy has been calculated and found to be decreased with the dispersion of PCNPs into the pure nematic LC. The response time and birefringence have been also observed with the variation of temperature, frequency as well as the concentrations of carbon NPs. After the dispersion of PCNPs achieved better birefringence and faster response in the dispersed system, which is the significant application in display devices. Threshold voltage splay elastic coefficient and rotational viscosity have been calculated for both pure and NPs dispersed nematic system. Its value is increased with the dispersion of NPs. Additionally, photoluminescence and figure of merit have investigated as a comparative study of nematic matrix as well the dispersed system. The experimental results have been found to have good agreement with the theoretical data of nematic LC. An effort has been made to explain these experimental results on the basis of interaction between nematic molecules and carbon NPs.     

Superior electro-optic properties of liquid crystal system using cobalt oxide nanoparticle dispersion

In this article, we study the electro-optical (EO) properties of the homogeneous aligned nematic liquid crystal (N-LC) doped with cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) nanoparticles (NPs). The EO characteristics of Co₃O₄ doped N-LC are higher performance, indicating lower threshold voltage (1.33 V), faster rising time (1.479 ms), and faster falling time (9.343 ms) than pure liquid crystal (LC) cells. We have demonstrated these results by investigating the relationship between dielectric constants and LC device properties. Furthermore, we proved NPs doped N-LC cells drive low power operation without capacitance hysteresis. Our experimental results were verified by software simulation based on general physical properties.     

Electrical and electro-optical parameters of 4ʹ-octyl-4-cyanobiphenyl nematic liquid crystal dispersed with gold and silver nanoparticles

Thermodynamical, dielectric, optical and electro-optical characterisation of pure 8CB and its composites with gold and silver nanoparticles have been studied. Thermodynamical studies suggest a decrease in clearing temperature of the nanocomposite systems as compared to the pure system. Dielectric parameters of pure nematic liquid crystal and nanocomposites in the homeotropic and planar aligned samples have been measured in the frequency range of 1–35 MHz. Ionic conductivity increases significantly in nematic and smectic A_d (SmA_d) phases, whereas dielectric anisotropy is almost unchanged for both the nanocomposites. Threshold voltage for Freederick transition, switching voltage and splay elastic constant have decreased in the case of nanocomposite systems. Relaxation frequency and activation energy of an observed relaxation mode corresponding to molecular rotation about the short axis increase in the SmA_d phases of both the nanocomposites. The optical study suggests that due to dispersion of nanoparticles, the optical band gap has decreased.     

Experimental studies on the phase diagram and physical properties of mixture of calamitic and discotic nematic liquid crystals

Physical studies on mixture of calamitic and discotic nematic liquid crystals are meagre although they are potential for optimising physical properties. Here, we report experimental studies on the phase diagram and physical properties of mixtures of ambient temperature discotic and calamitic nematic liquid crystals. A substantial decrease in several physical properties such as birefringence, dielectric anisotropy and elastic constants are observed with increasing wt% of discotic compound. On the other hand a large increase in the rotational viscosity is observed. Based on the experimental results a simple model of mutual orientation of the rod-like and disc-like molecules is proposed.     

Morphologies and electro-optic properties of polystyrene/liquid crystal composite films

Morphology and electro-optic properties of composite films composed of polystyrene (PS) and nematic liquid crystal (LC) have been studied for a wide range (30-70 wt% of liquid crystal) of film composition. At two specific levels of LC loadings (50 and 60 wt%), effects of temperature, frequency and voltage of applied ac electric field on the transmittance of the films were intensively measured, and the results were interpreted in terms of aggregation structure of the film, the geometry of LC domains, LC loading, dielectric constant, conductivity, birefringence, and the solubility of LC in polymer. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Nematic nanocomposites with enhanced optical birefringence

The proper performance of electro-optical devices utilising liquid crystals (LCs) requires materials with high diffraction efficiency, i.e. with high optical/dielectric anisotropy, low threshold voltage and fast switching. One can achieve increase of dielectric anisotropy by using chemical synthesis or mixing LC materials. However, in most cases, this causes an increase in the threshold voltage and switching times. Therefore obtaining materials with high dielectric anisotropy and keeping threshold voltage and switching times low is a challenging task. We achieved promising results by making binary mixtures of a polar nematic LC 4'-hexyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (HBPCN) with low percentage (1–10% by weight) gold nanoparticles. We report that for the mixtures with 1% and 2% gold the dielectric anisotropy increases by 100% and the birefringence by about 50% of their values for pure nematic. We also report that the increase of the dielectric anisotropy in the mixtures only slightly affects threshold voltage and switching times. We propose that this increase is caused by cluster formation in the mixtures.     

Fluoro-substitution in hydrogen bonding liquid crystal benzoic acid: dielectric,electro-optic and optical proprieties and inducing polar nematic phase

ABSTRACT

Dielectric and electro-optic properties have been studied in order to understand the effect of the fluoro-substitution on hydrogen bonded liquid crystal proprieties. The fluoro-substitution alters the characteristics of pure LC structure and changes its physical parameters. In the present paper, variation in physical parameters like dielectric permittivity, response time, elastic constant, rotational viscosity etc. has been explained based on many factors. In addition, the fluorine substitution has lead to the appearance of the polar nematic phase.     

Dielectric Spectroscopy Analysis of Liquid Crystals Recovered from End-of-Life Liquid Crystal Displays

In the present work, the dielectric properties of recycled liquid crystals (LCs) (non-purified, purified, and doped with diamond nanoparticles at 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 wt%) were investigated. The studied LC mixtures were obtained from industrial recycling of end-of-life LC displays presenting mainly nematic phases. Dielectric measurements were carried out at room temperature on a frequency range from 0.1 to 10⁶ Hz using an impedance analyzer. The amplitude of the oscillating voltage was fixed at 1 V using cells with homogeneous and homeotropic alignments. Results show that the dielectric anisotropy of all purified samples presents positive values and decreases after the addition of diamond nanoparticles to the LC mixtures. DC conductivity values were obtained by applying the universal law of dielectric response proposed by Jonscher. In addition, conductivity of the doped LC mixtures is lower than that of the undoped and non-purified LC.     

Photoluminescence and electrical conductivity measurement of liquid crystal doped with ZnO nanoparticles

We report the effect of dispersion of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) on the conductivity, birefringence and fluorescence properties of commercially available room temperature nematic liquid crystal (LC) with the variation of dopant concentration. Significant changes have been observed in transition enthalpy, DC conductivity, photoluminescence and birefringence values of the LC material by the addition of ZnO NPs. While the inclusion of NPs enhances the electrical conductivity of the composite system, it results in a reduction in the birefringence value, which can be attributed to a decrease in the order parameter of the system due to the perturbed geometry of the LC. This also results in the increase in threshold voltage value, which has been speculated as due to the piezoelectric nature of the ZnO NPs. The analysis of the fluorescence spectrum indicates that ZnO NPs enhance the intensity in the LC phase along with a small blue shift.     

Dielectric properties of two high birefringence liquid crystal mixtures in the Sub-THz band

ABSTRACT

In order to produce liquid crystal (LC) with high birefringence (Δn) in the THz band, eight LC monomers were designed and synthesized. We formulate two mixtures (LC S200-2 and E7-2) by adding eight LC monomers to two commercial LCs (S200 and E7), respectively. The dielectric constants of the mixture LCs were measured using the frequency selective surface (FSS) in the region from 90 to 140 GHz. We compare the simulated results with the experimental measurements and determine the dielectric constants of the LCs. The dielectric anisotropy (Δε) of the nematic S200-2 and E7-2 LC mixtures are 16.4% and 16.3% higher than that of the commercial S200 and E7 LCs, respectively. The results show the frequency tunability of the two LC mixtures is greater than that of the commercial LCs.     

Investigation of the viscoelastic properties of 4-propoxy-biphenyl-4-carbonitrile

ABSTRACT

We report on the temperature-dependent measurements of dielectric permittivity, birefringence, elastic constants and rotational viscosity for 4-propoxy-biphenyl-4-carbonitrile in the nematic region. The temperature dependence of the three elastic constants was determined from studies of the Freédericksz transition. The thermal dependence of elastic constants shows features similar to the literature (bend > splay > twist). Elastic constants are proportional to the square of the order parameter. Temperature-dependent dielectric characterisation was carried out at a frequency of 10 kHz. The compound shows positive dielectric anisotropy in the nematic phase. The rotational viscosity is found to be relatively low. Temperature dependence of order parameter is estimated using Haller’s method. The figure of merit was also calculated as a function of temperature.     

Influence of low concentration silver nanoparticles on the electrical and electro-optical parameters of nematic liquid crystals

Thermodynamical, optical, dielectric and electro-optical characterisation of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) and silver nanoparticle (NP) composites have been carried out. Transition temperatures of pure and composites systems have been measured. Thermodynamical studies suggest increase of clearing temperature of the composite material as compared to the pure material. Threshold voltage for switching from bright to dark state and splay elastic constant of the pure and composite materials have been determined. From frequency dependence of dielectric measurements, permittivity, loss, relaxation frequency and dielectric strength of flip-flop mechanism of LC molecules in the nematic phase have been calculated. Dielectric properties of composites have been explained in reference of Maier and Meier theory. The effects of doping of NPs on dielectric and electro-optic properties of LC-NP composites have been discussed.     

Study of pentyl-cyanobiphenyl nematic doped with gold nanoparticles

We studied the dispersion of up to 20 wt% gold nanoparticles (GNP) in a room temperature nematic: cyanobiphenyl homologue 4′-pentyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (PBPCN or 5CB). At 15% GNP, the threshold voltage decreases to 1.2 times its value for the pure nematic and the switching-off time decreases by a factor of three. We show that this decrease of display parameters is caused by a 1.8 times decrease in dielectric anisotropy, a 1.3 times change in the average elastic parameter, and a change of about 4.6 times the rotational viscosity. The doped GNP did not affect the thermal stability of the material's nematic phase and the material parameters behaviour versus gold concentration was different from the reported earlier analogical behaviour for another cyanobiphenyl homologue, 4′-hexyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (HBPCN or 6CB). We propose that these observed differences between the properties of two homologues doped with gold are due to differences in the number of carbon atoms in the alkyl fragment of liquid crystal molecules.     

Effects of the fluorinated liquid crystal molecules on the electro-optical properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal films

The different fluorinated liquid crystal (LC) molecules doped to E8 were used as LC component to prepare polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films. The mass fraction of the LC mixture is fixed 50.0 wt%. Results indicate that doping 8.0 wt% fluorinated LC molecule ME3CP to E8 significantly reduced the driving voltage of the PDLC films, and the driving voltage reduced with the rise of mass fraction of ME3CP. Besides, the terminal flexible chain length of the fluorinated LC molecule influenced the LC mixture properties based on E8, such as the dielectric anisotropy, birefringence and viscosity of the LC mixture, and the morphology and the electro-optical properties of PDLC films were controlled not only by the physical properties of the LC mixture, but also by the terminal flexible chain length of the fluorinated LC molecule .     

Dielectric and elastic properties of fluorine-containing tricyclic isothiocyanate liquid crystal

The dielectric and elastic properties of liquid crystals (LCs) generally depend on the molecule structure, such as polar group and carbon chain length. For further investigation of the influence of molecular structure on the dielectric and elastic properties of fluorine-containing tricyclic isothiocyanate LC, the experimental temperature was controlled at 25°C by precision hot stage, and a precision LCR meter was used to measure the capacitance of six LC cells under the voltage from 0.1 to 20 V at 1 kHz. An LC cell capacitance model and a dual-cell model were adopted to obtain the dielectric anisotropy, and the capacitance–voltage curves of six LC materials were plotted. The threshold voltage of Fréedericksz transition was analysed, and a finite difference iterative method was used to attain specific values of three elastic constants. The influence of molecular structure on the dielectric and elastic constants was finally analysed. Experimental results showed that the introduction of meta-difluoro group would increase the dielectric anisotropy and reduce the threshold voltage of LC. As the length of the alkyl carbon chain increased, the dielectric anisotropy would have an odd–even alternation effect, which would lead to changes in the elastic constants of LC.     

Study on cyanobiphenyl nematic doped by silver nanoparticles

We study the effects of doped (1%wt and 2%wt) silver nanoparticles on material properties of nematic liquid crystal: 4-pentyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl. Using differential scanning calorimetry, electrical and dielectric measurements methods, we show that the doped NPs do not affect the nematic’s phase clearing point, lower the dielectric anisotropy, viscosity, switching-off time, and increase the threshold voltage and elasticity of the nematic. We report that the doped materials temperature behaviour of Frederick’s transition threshold voltage and switching-off time, deviates from the expected behaviour for pristine nematics. To explain this anomalous behaviour, we perform data analysis of the governing Frederick’s transition material parameters of studied samples. We show that the elastic parameter of doped samples is not following the predictions of Maier–Saupe theory, which is valid for conventional nematics. We report that the doped samples temperature behaviour of the elastic parameter follows the predictions of the Gelbart and Ben-Shaul theory.     

Electrical conductivity and dielectric constant measurements of liquid crystal–gold nanoparticle composites

The behaviour of the anisotropic electrical conductivity of liquid crystal–gold nanoparticle (LC‐GNP) composites consisting of a commercially available room temperature nematic compound doped with alkylthiol‐capped GNPs has been investigated. The nematic–isotropic transition of the composite decreases nearly linearly with increasing X, the concentration of GNP (in weight %) at a rate of about 1°C /weight %. The inclusion of GNPs increases the electrical conductivity of the system with the value increasing by more than two orders of magnitude for X = 5%. However, the anisotropy in conductivity, defined as the ratio of the conductivity along (σ_∥) and orthogonal (σ_⊥) to the director shows a much smaller but definite decrease as X increases.     

Enhanced electro-optical properties of a nematic liquid crystals in presence of BaTiO3 nanoparticles

Composites of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) and ferroelectric barium titanate (BaTiO₃) nanoparticles (NPs) have been prepared. The alignments of NPs in the host medium have been demonstrated. Effect of NPs doping on various display parameters of NLCs, namely, threshold voltage, dielectric anisotropy and splay elastic constant has been studied using electro-optical and dielectric studies. The nematic ordering of host supports alignment of NPs parallel to the director which consequently improves electro-optical parameters in the composite system. The dielectric and electro-optic properties of LC–NPs composites have been discussed in frame of conventional theories of NLCs.     

Enhancement of flexoelectric ratio of nematic liquid crystal by doping calamitic ferroelectric liquid crystal

We measured the flexoelectric ratio e* of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) doped with a calamitic ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC). We doped two kinds of commercial FLC into the pure NLC at a weight concentration of 5 wt%. The absolute value of the flexoelectric ratio was increased up to 49% compared to the pure NLC. The greater transverse dipole moment and the elastic constant of FLC are thought to be related to the increase of the flexoelectric ratio.     

Liquid crystal composites with a high percentage of gold nanoparticles

We have reported in our previous work that doping low concentrations (up to 10% by weight) of gold nanoparticles (GNP) in a polar nematic 4’-hexyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (HBPCN) increases the dielectric anisotropy, while the switching voltage and times, and the nematic–isotropic liquid (IL) transition point of the mixtures are not affected by doped nanoparticles. In the current work we extend our study of the behaviour of HBPCN doped with higher than 10% GNP. We show that at certain gold concentrations – 35% and 45% – the nematic–IL phase transition point increases by 15°C in comparison with the pure nematic value. At the same concentrations the dielectric anisotropy increases from its value for the pure nematic by about 2.2 times for 35% and twice for 45%. Also, the threshold voltage increases by 0.2 V for 35% and decreases by 0.15 V for 45%. However, the switching-off times decrease for both concentrations: 7 ms for 35% and 12 ms for 45%. We propose that the described effects of doped GNP on the properties of the nematic are due to the formation of different kinds of aggregations between two components of the mixtures.