Results in Physics 8 (2018) 1119–1123

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Results in Physics
journal homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/results-in-physics

UV response on dielectric properties of nano nematic liquid crystal

Kamal Kumar Pandey a, Pankaj Kumar Tripathi b, Abhishek Kumar Misra c,⇑, Rajiv Manohar d
a
Department of Physics, Govt. Vivekanand (P.G.) College, Manendragarh, C.G., India
b
School of Chemical Engineering & Physical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab
c
Department of Physics, Govt. V.Y.T. P.G. Autonomous College, Durg, Chattisgarh 491001, India
d
Liquid Crystal Laboratory, University of Lucknow, Lucknow 226007, U.P., India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, we investigate the effect of UV light irradiation on the dielectric parameters of nematic
Received 14 October 2017 liquid crystal (5CB) and ZnO nanoparticles dispersed liquid crystal. With addition of nanoparticles in
Received in revised form 27 December 2017 nematic LC are promising new materials for a variety of application in energy harvesting, displays and
Accepted 21 January 2018
photonics including the liquid crystal laser. To realize many applications, however we optimize the prop-
Available online 31 January 2018
erties of liquid crystal and understand how the UV light irradiation interact the nanoparticles and LC
molecules in dispersed/doped LC. The dielectric permittivity and loss factor have discussed the pure
Keywords:
nematic LC and dispersed/doped system after, during and before UV light exposure. The dielectric relax-
Dielectric permittivity
Relaxation frequency
ation spectroscopy was carried out in the frequency range 100 Hz–10 MHz in the nematic mesophase
Nematic liquid crystal range.
UV light irradiation Ó 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction liquid crystalline materials are a valuable source of information

Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) are well known for their wide-
spread application in liquid crystal display (LCD) devices. Owing
to their large optical anisotropy i.e. birefringence and dielectric
anisotropy. NLCs has also been used to modulate refractive index
by molecular reorientation with an external field or under the
action of UV light [1]. One of the most interesting properties in
nano-science in recent years has been to find liquid crystal/nano-
composite. The goal is to produces macroscopic properties of liquid
crystal composite during UV light irradiation. In present time, to
obtain the LC materials with physical properties for display or
other optical devices, different additives such as carbon nano tube
[2], nanoparticles [3], polymers [4] and dyes [5,6] are dispersed/-
doped in pure liquid crystalline materials. The main work of semi-
conducting nanoparticles have enjoyed use as guest in LC mixtures
as ZnO nanoparticles have been employed as dopants in condensed
optical materials intended for novel opto-electronics devices.
Recently, some research groups have work done on the doping of
ZnO nanoparticles in NLCs and ferroelectric LCs and found to
improve the dynamical behavior have attracted much attention.
The orientational dynamics of director in the applied field is a
fundamental physical phenomenon that is at the heart of modern
display technologies. It is well known that dielectric studies of
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: abhiphysics01@gmail.com, abhi_physics123@rediffmail.com
(A.K. Misra).
on their molecular arrangement, molecular dynamics and specific
intermolecular interactions, in both mesomorphic and isotropic
phases. The most fundamental methods of predicting the physical
properties of liquid crystalline compounds are based on informa-
tion about their molecular shape and intermolecular interactions.
A small change in the molecular structure can result in a drastic
change in the corresponding liquid crystal properties. Therefore,
the dielectric properties of many LC materials have been investi-
gated both experimentally and theoretically [7–9]. The dielectric
spectroscopy information of nematic LCs has an important influ-
ence on the effect produced by the application of an electric field,
which is vital for display devices and spatial light modulators [10].
Whereas a fairly extensive body of literature is available on the
permittivity behavior of low molecular mass LC materials [11]
and liquid crystalline polymers, there are only a few reports on
dielectric measurements of UV light exposure LC/nano composite.
In a NLC and LC/nano composite UV light exposure, the collective
orientations of the LC molecules under the action of an electric
field is influenced by the presence of nanoparticles (NPs) and UV
light exposure interaction. It has been reported previously that
the presence of particle in an LC affects some of the properties of
the host, i.e. pure LC [10–12]. The dielectric permittivity of an LC
is strongly influenced by the dipolar interaction between host
NLC and guest ZnO NPs.
In application point of view, ultraviolet (UV) light is often used
to seal the LC panel. In projection displays, the employed arc lamp
is extremely bright; although a cold mirror and a hot mirror are

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2018.01.051
2211-3797/Ó 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1120 K.K. Pandey et al. / Results in Physics 8 (2018) 1119–1123
used to filter out the unwanted UV and infrared contents of the
lamp, residual UV light could still reach the LC panel and cause a
gradual degradation of the LC molecules. Once the LC medium is
damaged, the pre-tilt angle is changed so that the consequent
electro-optic effects are altered. Therefore, it is critical to identify
the ultimate LC material failure mechanism and search for molec-
ular structures that can withstand a longer UV light exposure. It
has been demonstrated that a various amount of nanoparticles
(5%, 10%, and 20%) dispersed/doped in pure NLC enhance the reori-
entation of the NLC molecules by almost two orders of magnitude.
As a consequence of such enhanced reorientation, change in the
relaxation dynamics of LC/nano composite system from that of
the pristine NLC occurs.
In the present work, we have to investigate the effect of
nanoparticles dispersion/doping in NLC under the UV light expo-
sure. In fact, we are dealing that how these irradiations affect the
dielectric permittivity and relaxation dynamics of pure NLC and
LC/nano composite and consequently how it affects the alignment
of the molecules in the sample.
Experimental details
LC material and nanoparticle
In present work, we have used the 5CB (4-pentyl-40 -cyanobiphe
nyl) exhibits nematic phase from 18 °C to 35 °C. Its molecular
structure is shown in Fig. 1. The rod shape ZnO nanoparticles used
in the present study, are semiconducting nanoparticles with 3.38
eV band gap and size is nearly 14 nm [13]. They can be dispersed
is most non-polar organic solvents such as toluene, chloroform
etc. The nanoparticles have synthesized by a hydrothermal process
[13]. It is widely used method that can control the shape and size
of ZnO nanoparticles among all solution base approaches. ZnO
shows a unique set of physical and chemical properties at room
temperature such as large excitation bending energy, radiation
hardness, piezoelectricity, photo elasticity etc.
Preparation for sample cell and liquid crystal/nano composite
To prepare the LC/nano composite, an appropriate amount (in
the weight ratio i.e. 5%, 10%, and 20%) of the ZnO nanoparticles into
the pure NLC and then homogenized with an ultrasonic mixer at
90 °C for one hour and uniform dispersion of nanoparticles was
ensured. The pure NLC and LC/nano composite were filled in
assembled cells at 5 °C temperature above the clearing tempera-
ture of the sample by capillary method. It was cooled slowly under
AC electric field after filling the sample in the cells and the align-
ment of the sample was confirmed under the crossed position of
polarizing optical microscope (POM).
The sample cells for the present study consisted of highly con-
ducted (10 X/Square and the visible light transmission is more
than 90%) indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass plates. The ITO pat-
terns which were square of dimension of 5 cm used as electrodes.
Such patterns were achieved by photolithographic techniques. The
thickness between two glass plates was uniformly maintained 10
mm by means of a Mylar spacer. The planar alignment on the pat-
terned glass plates was obtained by using conventional rubbed
polyimide techniques. In this method both the electrodes were
treated with adhesion promoter and polymer Nylon 6/6 and then
C 5 H11 CN
Fig. 1. Molecular structure of 5CB nematic liquid crystal.
rubbed unidirectionally for planar alignment. The cells were cali-
brated using AR grade CCl4 and benzene. The material was intro-
duced into the cell by capillary action at a temperature slightly
higher than its isotropic temperature. A well-aligned cell was
obtained by applying an electric field in the slow cooling cycle
from the isotropic phase to room temperature. The dielectric data
have been determined by measuring the value of capacitance and
the dissipation factor measured with the help of impedance/gain
phase analyzer HP-4194A in the frequency range 100 Hz–10
MHz. We have subtracted value of stray capacitance and we have
also removed contribution of sheet resistance, ITO coatings and
lead inductance of the cell. By the least square fitting of experi-
mental data we have removed these contributions and we used
this dielectric permittivity. The temperature of the samples has
been maintained with the help of Instec Hot Plate HCS 302. The
exposure time of the pure and nanoparticle doped cells was 60 s.
The wave length of UV light used for this measurement was of
365 nm.
Results and discussion
The dielectric data of the pure NLC and LC/nano composite have
been analyzed by well known Cole-Cole dispersion Eq. (1) given
by:
de0
e ¼ e0 ð1Þ þ ð1aÞ
ð1Þ
1 þ ðjxsÞ
Here de0 is the dielectric strength of the material, e1 is the high
frequency limit of dielectric permittivity, x = 2pf is the angular fre-
quency, s is the relaxation time and a is the distribution parame-
ter. On separating real and imaginary part of the equation one
may get after adding high and low frequency correction
parameters
e0 ¼ e0 ðdcÞf n þ e0 ð1Þ
ð1aÞ
de0 ½1 þ ð2pf sÞ sinðap=2Þ
þ ð1aÞ ð1aÞ
ð2Þ
1 þ ð2pf sÞ2 þ 2ð2pf sÞ sinðap=2Þ
and
ð1aÞ
rðdcÞ de0 ðf sÞ cosðap=2Þ m
e00 ¼ k
þ 2ð1aÞ ð1aÞ
þ Af ð3Þ
e0 2pf 1 þ ð2pf sÞ þ 2ð2pf sÞ sinðap=2Þ
Here r (dc) is the ionic conductance and eo is the free space per-
mittivity and f is the frequency while n, m and k are the fitting
parameters. The term e0 (dc) fn and r(dc)/eo2pfk are added in
equations for low frequency effect due to the electrode polariza-
tion, capacitance and ionic conductance. The term Afm is added
in the Eq. (3) for high frequency effect due to the ITO sheet resis-
tance and lead inductance of the cell. By the least square fitting
of above equation into experimental data we have removed the
low and high frequency errors. The exposure of UV light has been
done by using following technique as shown in Fig. 2.
The dielectric anisotropy of a liquid crystal is De = ek-e\, it is
interesting to know the tendency of e|| and e\ to change during
UV light illumination, in order to know the stability of the LCs.
Here, e|| and e\ are the dielectric permittivity along and perpendic-
ular to the principal molecular axis, respectively. Fig. 3 represents
the change of e|| and e\ as a function of the frequency. We find the
e|| of all three compounds changes only slightly (less than 2%) dur-
ing UV light exposure. As we know, the dielectric permittivity of
the anisotropic LC depends on the dipole moment and its orienta-
tion angle with respect to the principal molecular axis. If a com-
pound is degraded due to UV light irradiation, then its pretilt
angle in a LC cell could be increased. As a result, the measured
effective ek is increased and the threshold behavior is smeared.
 K.K. Pandey et al. / Results in Physics 8 (2018) 1119–1123 1121

It is observed during UV light exposure, the value of dielectric

Fig. 2. The experimental arrangement for the exposure of UV light.
From Fig. 3, it can be seen that the molecular structures of 5CB has
been altered during the UV light illumination time. The degrada-
tion mechanism could originate from the electron cloud shift
which is induced by the UV light. Once these degraded LC com-
pounds were filled in to cells, their pretilt angle was enlarged
resulting in increased e\. After low and high frequency corrections
the dielectric permittivity has been plotted against frequency as
shown in Fig. 3. The dielectric permittivity describes the phase
lag between the displacement and applied external electric field
in the dispersion region of the sample and we observe that value
of dielectric permittivity increases with frequency.
permittivity are increased due to which can be attributed on the
basis of interactions taking place between the substrate and 5CB
molecules, as soon as the cell is UV light irradiated, the irradiation
cause a chemical change in the cell, which effects its polymeric
layer which effects the pretilt angle (as pretilt angle is defined as
director inclination to the boundary surface) so, the local axis of
the nematic potential may fluctuate or the director may make a
finite pretilt angle with the substrate, which influences alignment
of the LC which effects the origin of ions that are responsible for
currents through LC and nanoparticles interaction. These ions play
an important role in the formation of charge carriers in the NLC.
The presence of positive ions in 5CB which govern conductivity
in the LC cell, are generated by the spontaneous dissociation of
5CB due to irradiation and doping-still research groups [15] are
studying on it how different irradiation (gamma, plasma, laser
etc.) are effecting the LC molecule. Fig. 3(b–d) show variation of
dielectric permittivity with increasing concentration of doping
ratio 5%, 10%, and 20% ZnO. As the dopant ZnO has charge transfer
property from one nanoparticle to other occurs admittedly by the
hopping mechanism i.e. charge storage property in built [14–16].
This hopping mechanism is continuously involved during the
whole process and effects the pretilt angle and so we can say that
such a trend is resulted due to the interaction of 5CB molecule with
the substrate and doping high energy irradiation all collectively are
responsible exhibiting in such trend. Thus, in short whole process
can also be explained with the help of three interactions.

14
(a) (b) 14
0
0 After uv 5CB+5% ZnO at 31 C After uv
Pure 5CB at 31 C
12 During uv During uv
12
Before uv Before uv
10 10
Dielectric permittivity

Dielectric permittivity

8 8

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7
Frequency(Hz in log) Frequency(Hz in log)

14
(c) (d) 14
5CB+10% ZnO at 31 C
0 After uv After uv
During uv 5CB+20 % ZnO
12 12
During uv
Before uv Before uv

10 10
Dielectric permittivity

Dielectric permittivity

8 8

6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7

Frequency(log) Frequency (Hz in log)

Fig. 3. Variation of dielectric permittivity with frequency for (a) pure NLC and LC/nano composite with (b) 5% (c) 10% (d) 20% ZnO nanoparticles.
1122 K.K. Pandey et al. / Results in Physics 8 (2018) 1119–1123

(a) Nanoparticle-nanoparticle interaction: Explained by using
the charge transfer property and hopping mechanism.
(b) Nanoparticle-NLC molecule interaction: The enhancement
in the value of dielectric permittivity for the LC/nano com-
posite is due to the parallel correlation of the dipole
moments between the nanoparticles and LC molecules. The
dipole moment of the nano rods supports the dipole
moment of the LC molecule that can be attributed to the
increment in the values of the dielectric permittivity.
(c) NLC-surface electrode: irradiation causes chemical change
which affects its polymeric layer.
The next parameter on which we have concentrated is dielectric
loss and we have observed that as compared with pure sample, the
loss in our case that is during irradiation is at slightly higher value,
which shows that during irradiation the excessive ions produced
do not hinder the cell fabrication and so after applying current,
the excessive ions produce a slight lag and thus the molecule fol-
lows the field gradually, resulting in dielectric loss, indicating slow
collective relaxation process. Also, Maier-Saupe theory [10]
assumes that the force between LC molecules is a dispersion force.
The dispersion force arises between two molecules that possess no
permanent electric dipoles but possess induced electric dipoles.
If the electronic structure of one molecule fluctuates (due to
temperature effects) and gains a momentary electric dipole, the
electric dipole polarizes the other molecule slightly, thereby creat-
ing an induced electric dipole on the second molecule. This
induced dipole on the second molecule produces an electric field
that tends to strength the original dipole on the first molecule.
The result of this interaction is that the initial spontaneous fluctu-
ation results in two induced dipoles, which tend to (1) attract each
other and (2) keep the two molecules aligned. Because the origin of
this force is in the random fluctuations occurring in the electronic
structure of molecules, the dispersion force is not exceedingly
strong.
As, concentration is increased each time during exposure same
trend is exhibited. During UV exposure dielectric loss peak
increases during the UV exposure trends are exhibited (as shown
in Fig. 3) due to thermal relaxation back phenomenon that is after
UV exposure there is thermal set back of the molecules i.e. they
gain energy during exposure and after irradiation they relax back
but there value is higher than in pure form [17,18].
The frequency response of the permittivity and dielectric loss of
the pure and nano doped sample is reflected by the manner in
which light transmission through the pure and doped material
changes with frequency of the applied field. Our measurements
of light transmission through the pure and doped material as a
function of frequency of the applied field are shown in Figs. 3
and 4. The appearance of an optimum frequency of the applied
field at which maximum transmission occurs through the nano

6
(a) 0 After uv (b)
6
Pure 5CB at 31 C 0 After uv
During uv 5CB+5% ZnO at 31 C
During uv
5 Before uv 5 Before uv

4 4
Dielectric loss

Dielectric loss

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7
Frequency(Hz in log) Frequency(log)

6
(c) (d) 6
5CB+10% ZnO at 31 C
0 After uv O After uv
5CB+20% ZnO 31 C Temp
During uv During uv
5 Before uv 5 Before uv

4 4
Dielectric loss

Dielectric loss

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7
Frequency(Hz in log) Frequency(log)

Fig. 4. Variation of dielectric loss with frequency for (a) pure NLC and LC/nano composite with (b) 5% (c) 10% (d) 20% ZnO nanoparticles.
 K.K. Pandey et al. / Results in Physics 8 (2018) 1119–1123
doped material has long been recognized as being due to the fact
that the orientation of the liquid crystalline molecule cannot follow
the external field at frequencies. Both the samples (pure and nano
doped) reveal a light-induced increased permittivity due to inter-
action between electric dipole moment of liquid crystal and elec-
tric vector of UV light. In this case the linearly-polarized UV light
irradiation results in an increased permittivity due to UV absorp-
tion of ZnO nanoparticles that leads to their reorientation perpen-
dicular to the polarization of light. At the same time, the rotation of
the liquid crystal molecule in the Co-containing layers is difficult.
However the result prevails due to the UV absorption of the ZnO
nanoparticles and increased permittivity.
Conclusion
We have studied the effect of irradiation of UV light on the pure
NLC and LC/nano composite with different concentrations (5%, 10%,
20%) of ZnO nanoparticles. The dielectric permittivity and dielec-
tric loss found to increase during UV light irradiation. This has
explained on the basis of interaction between NLC and nanoparti-
cles in the presence of UV light irradiation. We have also explained
the UV light stability of NLC with their pure and composite form.
The LC/nano composite exhibits a better UV light stability than
the pure NLC at 365 nm UV light exposures.
Acknowledgment
Author K.K. Pandey is thankful to UGC, New Delhi, for providing
grant under Minor Research Project MS-92/201041/XII/13-14/
CRO. Dr. Abhishek Kumar Misra is thankful to DST, New Delhi India
for the grant of Fast Track Project SR/FTP/PS-091/2012 entitled
‘‘Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals versus Fluorescent Polymer Doped
Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals”.
1123
Disclosure statement
No conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2018.01.051.
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