Blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) are chiral liquid crystals with unique cubic structures that have optical isotropy and very fast response times to electrical fields, making them attractive for photonic and electro-optical applications. Inorganic nanoparticles have been added to improve the BPLC stability and opto-electric properties. Gold nanoparticles (NPs) and nanorods (GNRs) stabilized with low molecular weight polymer ligands were added to a wide range BPLC and characterized by optical microscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy to determine the effect of the particle size and shape without variation of the NP core and ligand shell composition.
Inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) can be added to liquid crystals (LCs) to form LC nanocomposites. These nanocomposites can impart the electro-optical properties of the NPs to the LCs while the LCs can control the spatial distribution and properties of the particles. The surface coatings of these NPs can be designed to prevent uncontrolled aggregation. Mesogenic ligands often provide the best stabilization but require custom synthesis. We are exploring polymer ligands as an alternative, as they offer synthetic simplicity as well as chemical and molecular weight tunability. In particular, we are varying the polymer chain flexibility since more rigid chains can better couple to the nematic order whereas flexible polymers should strongly phase separate.
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