scholarly journals Dynamic FT-IR spectroscopy of liquid crystals and polymer films

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Βασίλειος Γρηγορίου

This dissertation describes the use of continuous-scan and step-scan Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic techniques to study the dynamics of the response of polymer films and liquid crystals to external perturbations. The investigation of liquid crystals includes both nematic and chiral smectic C examples. In these studies the dynamic infrared absorbance is used to explore the submolecular (functional group) contributions to the reorientation dynamics of the liquid crystal director in response to both pulsed (DC) and modulated (AC) electric fields. Continuous-scan stroboscopic FT-IR and step-scan impulse-response FT-IR were used to analyze the rise dynamics of reorientation resulting from pulsed DC perturbations; whereas step-scan FT-IR was used to monitor both rise and decay processes in response to synchronously modulated (AC) electric fields. In the step-scan measurements this sub-molecular view of the dynamics of liquid crystal director reorientation was enhanced by frequency correlation analysis, to yield 2D FT-IR spectra. For the nematic liquid crystal 4-pentyl-4$\sp\prime$-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) the data suggest a different rate of response of the rigid and floppy parts of the LC molecules. The second application of dynamic step-scan FT-IR reported is the study of the response of various polymer films to sinusoidally modulated tensile strain. The main advantage of the technique is that it can provide valuable information at the molecular level that can be used to interpret the macroscopic properties of the polymeric material under investigation. Examples of application to different types of polymer films are presented. Results for several heterogeneous polymers including semicrystalline high density/low density polyethylene blends, the micro-phase separated copolymer Kraton$\sp\circler$ and a homogeneous polymer blend of polystyrene/polydimethylphenylene oxide are presented. Finally, the modification of a research-grade FT-IR spectrometer (Nicolet Instruments, System 800) for step-scan operation is described. Some applications of the instrument to photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) are presented.

2011 ◽  
Vol 399-401 ◽  
pp. 532-537
Author(s):  
Li Hua Liu ◽  
Ying Bai ◽  
Fu Min Wang ◽  
Ning Liu

TiO2 nanomaterials were synthesized in lyotropic liquid crystal formed by nonionic surfactant TritonX-100 and TiOSO4 aqueous solution with NH3•H2O as precipitator. The lyotropic liquid crystals were characterized by means of POM and Low-angle XRD. FT-IR, TGA, XRD, TEM were used to characterize the TiO2 samples. It was found that all the lytropic liquid crystal were in lamellar liquid crysal phase and after casting the micro-structure of the LLC phase, the TiO2 samples were self-assemble to form lamellar, sphere and rod structures. According to the characterization results, possible formation mechanism was proposed.


Crystals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noureddine Bennis ◽  
Jakub Herman ◽  
Aleksandra Kalbarczyk ◽  
Przemysław Kula ◽  
Leszek R. Jaroszewicz

Liquid crystals act on the amplitude and the phase of a wave front under applied electric fields. Ordinary LCs are known as field induced birefringence, thus both phase and amplitude modulation strongly depend on the voltage controllable molecular tilt. In this work we present electrooptical properties of novel liquid crystal (LC) mixture with frequency tunable capabilities from 100Hz to 10 KHz at constant applied voltage. The frequency tunability of presented mixtures shown here came from composition of three different families of rodlike liquid crystals. Dielectric measurements are reported for the compounds constituting frequency-controlled birefringence liquid crystal. Characterization protocols allowing the optimum classification of different components of this mixture, paying attention to all relevant parameters such as anisotropic polarizability, dielectric anisotropy, and dipole moment are presented.


Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuen-Lin Tien ◽  
Rong-Ji Lin ◽  
Chi-Chung Kang ◽  
Bing-Yau Huang ◽  
Chie-Tong Kuo ◽  
...  

This research applies the non-linear effect of azo dye-doped liquid crystal materials to develop a small, simple, and adjustable beam-splitting component with grating-like electrodes. Due to the dielectric anisotropy and optical birefringence of nematic liquid crystals, the director of the liquid crystal molecules can be reoriented by applying external electric fields, causing a periodic distribution of refractive indices and resulting in a diffraction phenomenon when a linearly polarized light is introduced. The study also discusses the difference in the refractive index (Δn), the concentration of azo dye, and the rising constant depending on the diffraction signals. The experimental results show that first-order diffraction efficiency can reach ~18% with 0.5 wt % azo dye (DR-1) doped in the nematic liquid crystals.


1999 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 389-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
NELSON V. TABIRYAN ◽  
CESARE UMETON

Modulation of material parameters of liquid crystals (LC) due to absorption of light beams allows to control the reorientation of the LC under the influence of ac electric fields. Particularly, it makes possible recording of photorefractive-like orientation gratings. Such gratings are phase shifted with respect to the pattern of interfering light beams. The material and external parameters determine the magnitude of the shift. These photorefractive-like phase shifted gratings are stationary, and no diffusion processes are involved in their build-up.


Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 1122
Author(s):  
Yuriy Garbovskiy

The majority of tunable liquid crystal devices are driven by electric fields. The performance of such devices can be altered by the presence of small amounts of ions in liquid crystals. Therefore, the understanding of possible sources of ions in liquid crystal materials is very critical to a broad range of existing and future applications employing liquid crystals. Recently, nanomaterials in liquid crystals have emerged as a hot research topic, promising for its implementation in the design of wearable and tunable liquid crystal devices. An analysis of published results revealed that nanodopants in liquid crystals can act as either ion-capturing agents or ion-generating objects. In this presentation, a recently developed model of contaminated nanomaterials is analyzed. Nanoparticle-enabled ion capturing and ion generation regimes in liquid crystals are discussed within the framework of the proposed model. This model is in very good agreement with existing experimental results. Practical implications and future research directions are also discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 181-182 ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
Benjamin I. Outram ◽  
Steve J. Elston

The difference between e1 and e3 parameters for flexoelectric polarization, as originally defined byMeyer, is measured for nematic liquid crystal materials E7 and BL087 in Twisted Nematic (TN) cells with In-Plane Switching (IPS) electric fields using the crystal rotation method, which measures transmission as a function of angle of incidence. Values of e1 − e3 for E7 and BL087 are found to be 7.2±1.0 pCm−1 and 9.4±1.0 pCm−1 respectively.


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