Effect of silicon-based nanofillers on the electric-optical performance of polymer dispersed liquid crystals

ABSTRACT

In this work, the effect of two different KH570 modified silicon-based nanofillers on the electric-optical performance of PDLC samples was studied. The two nanomaterials not only were as the nanofillers but also acted as the crosslinkers in the PDLC system because of the acrylate groups grafting on the surfaces. The results indicated that both the two nanofillers can contribute to reducing the driving voltage of PDLC samples if their doping amount was small (0.5 wt%). However, the driving voltage would become higher if the doping amount of the two nanofillers further increased owing to the larger crosslinking degree of the polymer matrix. Moreover, the doping of KH570 modified nanofillers with nanocage structure into the PDLC system was conducive to achieving the larger contrast ratio (>100), while the driving voltage of the sample would not increase significantly. This study also demonstrated that the introduction of KH570 modified nanofillers with nanocage structure into the PDLC system can achieve a better regulation effect for electric-optical performance compared to the KH570 modified silica nanoparticles.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Polymer dispersed liquid crystals
• silicon-based nanofiller
• KH570
• driving voltage
• contrast ratio

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No.52173263], Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China [No.2021JM-536,No.2021JM-531, No.2021GY-205, No.2021JQ-877, and No.2021JM-534], Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department [No.21JK0959]. Scientific research fund for high-level talents of Xijing University [No. XJ21B02, No. XJ21B04], and the Youth Innovation Team of Shaanxi Universities.