Investigation of dielectric properties in polymer dispersed liquid crystal films doped with CuO nanorods.

Influence of CuO nanorods on the dielectric properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) is studied in the 4 Hz–8 MHz frequency range. PDLC films doped with different concentrations of CuO nanorods were prepared by photopolymerization-induced phase separation. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that, the size of liquid crystal (LC) droplets in a polymer matrix is at the nanometer level. Besides, with the increasing of the concentration of CuO nanorods, the size of droplet can approach about 1 μm. The result indicates the doping of the CuO nanorods slows the polymerization rate of the PDLC and the size of the LC droplets becomes larger. Further analysis of the Cole-Cole plot fitted by the Havriliak-Negami (HN) equation shows that there are two relaxation processes in the low frequency and high frequency region of the PDLC doped with nanorods. With the nanorods concentration of 0.1 wt%, the electric conductivity of PDLC is increased >20 times and there is a saturation effect. Unlabelled Image • PDLC films doped with CuO nanorods were prepared by PIPS. • The surface morphology of PDLC doped with CuO nanorods was studied. • Dielectric relaxation spectroscopic studies of PDLC films doped with CuO nanorods. • Doping CuO nanorods into PDLC, the conductivity is increased by >20 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]