Abstract
The report shows the strong impact of fullerene C60 nanoparticles on phase transitions and complex dynamics of rod-like liquid crystal dodecylcyanobiphenyl (12CB), within the limit of small concentrations. Studies were carried out using broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) via the analysis of temperature dependences of the dielectric constant, the maximum of the primary loss curve, and relaxation times. They revealed a strong impact of nanoparticles, leading to a ~20% change of dielectric constant even at x = 0.05% of C60 fullerene. The application of the derivative-based and distortion-sensitive analysis showed that pretransitional effects dominate in the isotropic liquid phase up to 65 K above the clearing temperature and in the whole Smectic A mesophase. The impact of nanoparticles on the pretransitional anomaly appearance is notable for the smectic–solid phase transition. The fragility-based analysis of relaxation times revealed the universal pattern of its temperature changes, associated with scaling via the “mixed” (“activated” and “critical”) relation. Phase behavior and dynamics of tested systems are discussed within the extended Landau–de Gennes–Ginzburg mesoscopic approach.
Highlights
Liquid crystals are soft materials where fluidity is matched to the limited crystalline order, leading to unique properties significantly influenced by continuous or weakly discontinuous phase transitions, associated with the emergence or disappearance of single elements of symmetry [1]
The report shows the strong impact of fullerene C60 nanoparticles on phase transitions and complex dynamics of rod-like liquid crystal dodecylcyanobiphenyl (12CB), within the limit of small concentrations
Studies were carried out using broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) via the analysis of temperature dependences of the dielectric constant, the maximum of the primary loss curve, and relaxation times
Summary
Liquid crystals are soft materials where fluidity is matched to the limited crystalline order, leading to unique properties significantly influenced by continuous or weakly discontinuous phase transitions, associated with the emergence or disappearance of single elements of symmetry [1]. In the group of nanoparticles, fullerenes play an exceptional role as the dopant to LC matrixes due to their very small size matched with extraordinary features These have caused a notable boost in studies of LC + fullerene composites in recent years [20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37]. New features of LC-type materials can be achieved without new chemical synthesis They can be smoothly tuned by changing the concentration and characteristics of nanoparticles. Emerging and future applications can benefit from “added value features absent in pure LC materials” [3,4]
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