Characterization of carbon nanotube–thermotropic nematic liquid crystal composites

Abstract

Dispersions of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in liquid crystals (LC) have attracted a lot of attention due to their unique properties and possible applications in photonics and electronics.However, the dispersions are hard to stabilize, and the doping level in the equilibrium state in LC hosts is vanishingly small.A feedback mechanism of monitoring the quality and doping level in dispersions is required.The characterisation of CNTwater dispersions has been reported, however additional challenges appear in both dispersing and monitoring CNTs in liquid crystals.In this paper we compare different methods of characterising CNT-LC composite materials.