Effect of oil palm leaf-based carbon quantum dot on nematic liquid crystal and its electro-optical effects

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study discloses electro-optical characterisation of oil palm leaf-based carbon quantum dots (CQDs size range 4–6 nm) dispersed in nematic liquid crystal E 48 at different concentrations (0.1 wt/wt. %, 0.2 wt/wt. % and 0.3 wt/wt.% named as MIX 1, MIX 2 and MIX 3). Thevolatile memory has been evident from the dielectric and electro-optical measurement with the application of dc bias voltage. Electro-optical results demonstrate that the total response time reduces to ~ 20% for MIX 1 and it increases to ~ 24% for MIX 2 and ~ 42% for MIX 3 respectively, hence MIX 2 and MIX 3 exhibits slower response compared to pure nematic. The birefringence has been found to be around 0.22 for pure nematic, 0.25 for MIX 1, 0.19 for MIX 2 and 0.16 for MIX 3 at 40°C temperature. The figure-of-merit parameter has been found to be almost 27 µm2/sec for pure nematic E 48, 43 µm2/sec for MIX 1, 16 µm2/sec for MIX 2 and 11 µm2/sec for MIX 3. This study finds its applicability in, phase shifters, security system and memory devices etc.