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Dielectric investigations on carbon nanotubes doped polymer dispersed liquid crystal films

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Abstract

We obtained carbon nanotubes (CNTs) doped polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films using the nematic E7 and polymethyl methacrylate, a composite that combines the benefic characteristic of the liquid crystals (LC) and carbon nanoparticles. The clearing temperatures recorded by differential scanning calorimetry for the PDLC blends were found to be lower than the value recorded for pure E7 LC mixture with no significant impact of the CNTs’ concentration. Broadband dielectric spectroscopy (DS) measurements were performed in the \( (10^{ - 1} \div 10^{7} )\;{\text{Hz}} \) frequency range, in the temperature domain (280–350) K. From the DS study, a two order magnitude variation of the conductivity over the entire temperature range was observed. The presence of CNTs results in an increase of electrical conductivity, with increasing concentration. Because the loss tangent spectra have complex shapes, they were fitted using the generalized Havriliak–Negami functions, and the characteristic relaxation times were extracted. The dependency of the characteristic relaxation time on temperature was modeled using the Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann function, and it showed a temperature variation according to the Arrhenius law. The increase of the CNT concentration increases the activation energy of the molecular electric dipoles of the LC. The interface LC-polymer interactions influence the nematic to isotropic phase transition of the LC.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgement PCG acknowledges the funding through Core Program PN19-03 (Contract No. 21 N/08.02.2019), from Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Materials Physics, POBox MG 07, 077125, Magurele, Romania

    Constantin Paul Ganea

  2. Department of Physics, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 313 Spl. Independentei, 060042, Bucharest, Romania

    Doina Manaila-Maximean

  3. Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 23 Dumbrava Rosie st, Sector 2, Bucharest, 020464, Romania

    Viorel Cîrcu

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  1. Constantin Paul Ganea
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Correspondence to Doina Manaila-Maximean or Viorel Cîrcu.

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Ganea, C.P., Manaila-Maximean, D. & Cîrcu, V. Dielectric investigations on carbon nanotubes doped polymer dispersed liquid crystal films. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 135, 797 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00795-w

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