Characterization and morphology of titania in 5CB liquid crystal

Abstract

Nowadays, liquid crystals are widely used in electronic devices due to their unique properties. Conventionally, the alignment mode in liquid crystal displays (LCD) is parallel. There are still have unsettled issues such as low vision angle, low contrast, and image sticking of displays in the market. The performance characteristic of liquid crystals can be enhanced when doped with nanoparticles. In this study, 4-cyano-4’-pentyl biphenyl (5CB) was doped with titanium dioxide (TiO₂) to investigate the effect of nanoparticles to the properties of liquid crystals host. Two sets of concentrations of TiO₂,5 and 10 w/v%, were characterized by Infrared (IR) and Raman spectroscopy as well as Polarized Optical Microscope (POM). The IR spectroscopy revealed the presence of functional groups in the compounds, which also indicates that both liquid crystal and nanoparticles are mixed physically since the IR spectra for both pure 5CB and doped with TiO₂ nanoparticles were the same. POM was captured the morphology and phase variance in different concentration of TiO₂/5CB. It shows the formation of Schlieren texture for both 5CB and doped with TiO₂ which signified the transition of nematic-isotropic phases, while Raman spectroscopy identified the fingerprint structure of 5CB and concentration of 10 w/v% TiO₂ in 5CB.