Influence of Surface Relief on Orientation of Nematic Liquid Crystals: Polyimide Doped with WS2 Nanotubes

Natalia Kamanina,Alla Zak,Yaroslav Barnash,Reshef Tenne,Andrey Toikka

doi:10.3390/cryst12030391

Abstract

Among the different methods for orienting liquid crystal (LC) molecules, adding nanoparticles into the matrix of the substrate material towards modifying its surface, is actively pursued. In this context, the influence of the nanoparticle content on the texture of the surface of polymer film used as the substrate for the LC orientation is of particular interest. Thus, in the current paper, WS2 nanotubes were used to dope the polyimide (PI) substrate-film in order to modify and control its surface morphology/roughness and properties. The modified organic surface structure is applied in order to achieve a new means for controlling the orientation of the LC molecules. This tool adds to the classical methods for controlling the orientation of the LC molecules, such as the display technique.

Highlights

It is well-known that the doping of organic material by nanoparticles (NPs), i.e., sensitization, can dramatically influence its fundamental properties [1–10], including the perspective structures based on nematic liquid crystals (NLC), used generally in display technology, optical limiting schemes, solar energy harvesting devices, biomedicine, etc. [11–15]
It should be noted that different authors reported that the relief structure can affect the orientation of the LC molecules at the interface from planar to tilted and to homeotropic ones
The same tendency can be established for the CNTs used for the polyimide sensitization

Summary

Introduction

It is well-known that the doping of organic material by nanoparticles (NPs), i.e., sensitization, can dramatically influence its fundamental properties [1–10], including the perspective structures based on nematic liquid crystals (NLC), used generally in display technology, optical limiting schemes, solar energy harvesting devices, biomedicine, etc. [11–15]. We continue the study of the substrate relief structure in order[2] of 9 to find new ways to orient the LC structures.

Results

Conclusion