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Abstract
In this article, a newly synthesised ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) material, namely LAHS 22, has been characterised. The characterisation of the FLC material has been performed using dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and polarisation optical microscopy. We observed an enhancement in the dielectric and electro-optical properties of the FLC material by incorporating gold nanoparticles (GNPs)-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The GNPs-decorated MWCNTs cause an increment in dielectric dispersion (up to kHz), absorption, spontaneous polarisation and rotational viscosity of the FLC material. The pure and GNPs-decorated MWCNTs doped FLC cells were analysed by means of various dielectric spectroscopic and optical measurements. The observed enhancement in the dielectric and electro-optical properties of the FLC material has also been studied with concentration of GNPs-decorated MWCNTs in FLC material. The GNPs-decorated MWCNTs/FLC composites are not only of fundamental importance, but also useful materials for device applications such as liquid crystal displays and memory devices.
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank Prof. R.C. Budhani, Director, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi for continuous encouragement and interest in this work. We also sincerely thank Prof. W. Haase and Mr. A. Lapanik, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany for gifting the FLC (LAHS 22) material to us. We also thank Dr. Ajay Kumar and Ms. Anu Malik for fruitful discussions. The authors (S.T. and A.C.) are thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for providing financial assistance and the author (J.P.) is grateful to the Department of Science and Technology for supporting this work under INSPIRE Faculty Award (DST/INSPIRE Faculty Award/2012) through INSPIRE Faculty Scheme of DST (IFA-PH-10).
