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Improving the electro-optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystal devices via cellulose nanoparticle dopants

Polymer Journal volume 56, pages 541–551 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

In the presence of a strong electric field, helices in a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) phase might be unwound, leaving liquid crystal (LC) molecules parallel to the electric field, thereby realizing transparency. Previously, we developed a novel particle-doped CLC cell without alignment layers that exhibited liquid crystal display (LCD) capabilities via electro-optical properties. This ability represents a novel advancement in LCD fabrication, resulting in enhanced electro-optical characteristics. To explore the impact of chirality on LCDs, we synthesized and radially constructed cellulose particles. These were then employed as chiral dopants in the production of LCD cells. The fabricated chiral nanoparticle (CNP)-doped PC05 CLC cell showed a high transparency of 97.4% and a fast response time of 7.6 ms. For the prepared radially constructed PDAT-doped PD2T PSCLC cell, a high transmittance of 93.6% and a fast response time of 13 ms were achieved. Fabrication of LCD cells without an alignment layer on substrates was achieved by indicate adding polymeric chiral nanoparticles into CLC mixtures. Adding 2 wt% chiral CNPs promoted the transmittance of the CLCs from 3.4 to 97%. This novel chiral dopant technique enables the use of a new easy method for the fabrication of LCDs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) for financially supporting this research under Contract MOST 111-2221-E-006-156. This research was also supported in part by the Higher Education Sprout Project, Ministry of Education to the Headquarters of University Advancement at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701401, Taiwan

    Chung-Yu Kuo, Sheng-Chi Hung, Wei-Chuan Chen & Chun-Yen Liu

  2. Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    A. V. Emelyanenko

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Kuo, CY., Emelyanenko, A.V., Hung, SC. et al. Improving the electro-optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystal devices via cellulose nanoparticle dopants. Polym J 56, 541–551 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-023-00879-1

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