Photoaligned nematic liquid crystals doped with palladium immobilised Carbon nanospheres for advanced low voltage display and energy storage devices

Abstract

This article presents the study of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) D30-17 doped with palladium immobilised carbon nanosphere (CNS) Pd/ON10 at two different concentrations. These composites were made of 0.1 and 0.4 wt/wt % and referred as Mix 1 and Mix 2 respectively. Palladium-immobilized carbon nanosphere was used because it functions as an advanced material for catalysis and energy applications, leveraging the catalytic properties of palladium. The sample holder used in this experiment was photo aligned cells coated with a photo sensitive alignment layer cibacron brilliant yellow (CBY). The textural study shows improved alignment in the mixtures. The frequency and temperature dependent dielectric behaviour is analysed for pure as well as the doped system in both planar (at 0 V) and homotropic (at 12 V) states. Dielectric study shows that the overall value of relative permittivity, dielectric loss and conductivity increases with increase in concentration of the dopant as compared to pure NLC. Compared to those of pure NLCs and Mix 2, Mix 1 has exhibited greater dielectric anisotropy leading towards a lower threshold voltage. The reversal in anisotropy is also observed which could be attributed to the photo sensitive alignment layer CBY of the photo aligned cells. Optical study depicts that there is no significant shift in the wavelength with respect to the concentration of the dopant. These results are expected to have applications in LC based electronic devices, photonic devices etc.