Dispersibility of metal nano particles in chiral nematic liquid crystals

Abstract

Dispersibility of metal nano particles in liquid crystals (LCs) is affected by orientation orders of LC phases. In this study, we evaluated the dispersibility in the three LC phases which were cholesteric blue phase I (BP I), cholesteric blue phase II (BP II) and cholesteric phase (Ch), by measuring extinction spectra of the absorption caused by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in gold nano particles (AuNPs). Strong LSPR was observed in BPs I and II whereas it wasn't observed in cholesteric phase.