SiO2 nanoparticles doped nematic liquid crystal system: An experimental investigation on optical and dielectric properties

The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of silica (SiO₂) nanoparticles (NPs) on optical and dielectric properties of BBEA nematic liquid crystal (NLC). For optical analysis the photoluminescence (PL) and UV-absorbance experiments have been performed. The doped system is showing enhancement in the intensity of photoluminescence with varying concentration of nanoparticles. A red shift is observed in the emission spectra of NLC doped with silica nanoparticles. The PL emission peak of NLC is observed at 377.3 nm which is shifted to 379.7 nm in the presence of silica nanoparticles. We have also observed the enhancement in the value of UV absorption for silica doped systems in comparison to the pure system. Energy band gap of pure and doped systems has been calculated and it is found that the energy band gap is decreasing with concentration which is a promising result of this study. The dielectric parameters of the pure and doped NLC systems were carried out as a function of frequency and temperature. Different dielectric parameters such as relative permittivity, loss factor and dielectric conductivity have been measured. The pure and silica nanoparticles doped systems has shown decreased value of dielectric permittivity and loss factor at lower frequency region and at higher frequency regions these values became constant. The value of relative permittivity also decreases with concentration. The increased value of a.c. conductivity for doped systems can be utilized in device designing. Moreover, the temperature dependence of the birefringence (Δn) was determined from the transmitted intensity of light for pure and doped systems and the improvement in its value for both composites has been observed. Improved value of birefringence has pronounced applications in optical devices.