Polymer dispersed liquid crystals doped with CeO₂ nanoparticles for the smart window

ABSTRACT

In this paper, rare earth oxide CeO₂ nanoparticle-doped polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films were prepared by the polymerisation induced phase separation (PIPS) process. The effects of the crosslinking agent TMPTA content, liquid crystal (LC) content and the CeO₂ content on the polymer structures and electro-optical properties of the as-made PDLC films were investigated systematically. It has been found that by changing the TMPTA content, LC content and doping a small amount of CeO₂ nanoparticles, the electro-optical properties of PDLC films can be optimised. After adding a low concentration of CeO₂ nanoparticles, the electro-optical properties of the PDLC film have been well optimised: after adding 0.8% CeO₂, V_th decreased from 26.6 V to 16.8 V, and CR increased from 89.5 to 137.6. Consequently, this work offers a meaningful approach to optimise the electro-optical properties of PDLC films, which indeed can form a wonderful footstone for the wide application of PDLC.

KEYWORDS:

• Polymer dispersed liquid crystal
• rare earth oxide nanoparticles ceo₂
• electro-optical properties
• nanomaterial composite

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department [No.20JK0959 and No.20JK0968]; Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China [No.2021GY-205, No.2021JM-536, No.2021JM-531, No.20]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [No. FRF-GF-19-003B]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 52073027, 51973017, 51773017].