Electrical properties of liquid crystal nano-colloids analysed from perspectives of the ionic purity of nano-dopants

ABSTRACT

The concentration of mobile ions in liquid crystals doped with nano-objects is analysed in the framework of the Langmuir isotherms assuming an ionic contamination of nano-dopants. The level of the ionic purity of nano-dopants is described by means of the dimensionless contamination factor. The applicability of the proposed approach is verified by fitting the broad variety of the existing experimental data. A good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental data indicates the feasibility of the idea to consider nano-dopants partially contaminated. In addition, it provides the way to deduce a set of important parameters (the surface density of the adsorbing sites, the contamination factor and the ratio of the adsorption constant to the desorption constant) directly from electrical measurements.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Nanoparticles
• liquid crystals
• ions
• electrical conductivity
• adsorption
• desorption
• ion trapping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author would like to acknowledge the support provided by the UCCS BioFrontiers Center at the University of Colorado.