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Nano Research 2018, 11(9): 4836-4845 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2072-2
Research Article | Issue | Published: 08 May 2018

Facet-dependent electro-optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystals doped with Cu2O nanocrystals

Show Author's Information Dongyu Zhao1( ),  Lihong Xu1,  Yang Shang1,2( ),  Xiaoxia Li1,  Lin Guo1( )
Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology Ministry of Education School of Chemistry Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering Beihang UniversityBeijing100191China
Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Measurement-Manipulation and Physics Ministry of Education School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering Beihang UniversityBeijing100191China
Keywords:
liquid crystals, Cu2O nanocrystals, electro-optical properties, host-guest systems, facet-dependence
Cite this article:
Zhao D, Xu L, Shang Y, et al. Facet-dependent electro-optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystals doped with Cu2O nanocrystals. Nano Research, 2018, 11(9): 4836-4845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2072-2
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Excellent electro-optical (E-O) performances are essential for high-quality reflective cholesteric liquid crystal (LC) displays, but are often limited by the high driving voltages required by these displays. Dispersing functional nanomaterials into the LCs has emerged as a promising approach to achieve outstanding E-O properties. In this work, we report the facet-controlled E-O properties of a chiral nematic LC (N*LC) doped with cubic, octahedral, and rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O. The outstanding E-O properties of the doped systems are related to the interaction between the liquid crystals and Cu2O dopants with different exposed crystal planes. Doping with octahedral and rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O reduces the stability of the planar state, as a result of both the surface abundance of active Cu atoms that interact with the polarized LC molecules, and the large amounts of vertexes and edges on the crystal surfaces, which accelerate the transition from the planar to the focal conic state under an applied electric field. Rhombic Cu2O is the most effective dopant for improving the E-O properties of the present LCs, resulting in a 65.31% reduction of the threshold voltage. The facet and morphology effects highlighted in this work provide a new pathway to develop excellent energy-saving meso-materials with exposed high-reactivity facets, improving their potential applications in electro-optical technologies and information displays.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Facet-dependent electro-optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystals doped with Cu2O nanocrystals

Show Author's information Dongyu Zhao1( ), Lihong Xu1, Yang Shang1,2( ), Xiaoxia Li1, Lin Guo1( )
Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology Ministry of Education School of Chemistry Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering Beihang UniversityBeijing100191China
Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Measurement-Manipulation and Physics Ministry of Education School of Physics and Nuclear Energy Engineering Beihang UniversityBeijing100191China

Abstract

Excellent electro-optical (E-O) performances are essential for high-quality reflective cholesteric liquid crystal (LC) displays, but are often limited by the high driving voltages required by these displays. Dispersing functional nanomaterials into the LCs has emerged as a promising approach to achieve outstanding E-O properties. In this work, we report the facet-controlled E-O properties of a chiral nematic LC (N*LC) doped with cubic, octahedral, and rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O. The outstanding E-O properties of the doped systems are related to the interaction between the liquid crystals and Cu2O dopants with different exposed crystal planes. Doping with octahedral and rhombic dodecahedral Cu2O reduces the stability of the planar state, as a result of both the surface abundance of active Cu atoms that interact with the polarized LC molecules, and the large amounts of vertexes and edges on the crystal surfaces, which accelerate the transition from the planar to the focal conic state under an applied electric field. Rhombic Cu2O is the most effective dopant for improving the E-O properties of the present LCs, resulting in a 65.31% reduction of the threshold voltage. The facet and morphology effects highlighted in this work provide a new pathway to develop excellent energy-saving meso-materials with exposed high-reactivity facets, improving their potential applications in electro-optical technologies and information displays.

Keywords: liquid crystals, Cu2O nanocrystals, electro-optical properties, host-guest systems, facet-dependence

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 25 January 2018
Revised: 30 March 2018
Accepted: 10 April 2018
Published: 08 May 2018
Issue date: September 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51673008, 51203005, and 21601009).

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