Switchable Response of Ferroelectric Nanoparticle Doped Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystals
In this study, we doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) with barium titanate (BaTiO3, BTO) nanoparticles to investigate the effects of particle size on the electro-optical properties of the suspensions, such as the driving voltage and response time. We mixed BTO
nanoparticles having various sizes of 8 nm, 20 nm, and 2 μm, and liquid crystals (LCs) (E7) prior to blending the LCs and pre-polymers (NOA 65). We fabricated the PDLC films using the polymerization-induced phase-separation (PIPS) method. The film surface was irradiated with UV (365
nm) light for 3 min to induce phase separation between the LC and the polymer. According to the results, the 10% transmittance voltage (V
10) improved from 18.2 V to 6.8 V by the addition of 0.3 vol% of 8 nm BTO particles to the PDLC. The response time also decreased from
15.2 ms to 8.4 ms. Smaller particles were distributed more uniformly within the sample, which resulted in a reduction of the V
10 and response time of the PDLCs. The results obtained imply that nanoscale ferroelectric particle doping is a powerful tool to tune electro-optical
properties of liquid crystals based systems, including improving the electrical performances without compromising other important characteristics, such as the haze of the PDLC devices.
Keywords: Nano Particle; Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal; Response Time
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Division of Nano. Energy Convergence Research, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), 50-1 Sang-Ri, Hyeonpung-Myeon, Dalseong-Gun, Daegu 711-873, Korea 2: Division of IoT. Robotics Convergence Research, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), 50-1 Sang-Ri, Hyeonpung-Myeon, Dalseong-Gun, Daegu 711-873, Korea 3: Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA
Publication date: 01 October 2016
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