Facet dependent electro-optical properties of liquid crystals doped with Au nanocrystals

Doping nanoparticles into liquid crystal (LC) systems can effectively improve the electro-optical (E-O) properties of LCs. The authors introduced three types of (cubic, octahedral, and rhombic dodecahedral) Au nanocrystals (NCs) into a nematic LC 4-cyano-4′-n-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and investigated th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Micro & nano letters 2020-08, Vol.15 (9), p.636-639
Main Authors: Wang, Meng, Wei, Dequan, Zong, Mingji, Gao, Shan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
4‐cyano‐4′‐n‐pentylbiphenyl
crystal planes
cubic Au nanocrystals
Doping
doping concentration
doping profiles
electric field
Electric fields
electro‐optical effects
electro‐optical properties
Energy conservation
Gold
impurities
impurity particles
Liquid crystals
Nanocrystals
Nanomaterials
Nanoparticles
nematic liquid crystals
Noble metals
octahedral Au nanocrystals
Optical properties
rhombic dodecahedral Au nanocrystals
saturation voltage
screening effect
Surface energy
System effectiveness
Threshold voltage
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Summary:Doping nanoparticles into liquid crystal (LC) systems can effectively improve the electro-optical (E-O) properties of LCs. The authors introduced three types of (cubic, octahedral, and rhombic dodecahedral) Au nanocrystals (NCs) into a nematic LC 4-cyano-4′-n-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and investigated the facet-dependent Au NCs in improving the E-O properties of 5CB. The surface energies of Au facets decreased in the order {110}>{100}>{111}. The improvement in the E-O properties of LC is related to the interaction between LC and different exposed crystal planes of dopants. Dodecahedral Au NCs, exposing {110} facets, are the most effective in improving the E-O properties because of their highest surface energy, resulting in a 30.15% reduction of the threshold voltage (Vth) and a 29.08% of the saturation voltage (Vsat) at a doping concentration of 0.4 wt%. The Au NCs trapped impurity particles. The screening effect could be suppressed, and the electric field could be strengthened, resulting in outstanding E-O properties. This work provides a novel way to enhance the E-O properties of LC molecules by doping with noble metal nanomaterials, thus improving their potential applications in energy-saving LC displays.
ISSN:1750-0443
1750-0443
DOI:10.1049/mnl.2019.0733