Nanocarbon liquid crystalline suspensions at the solid/LC interface by neutron reflectometry in a wedge-like thin film geometry

Carbon nanoparticles improve the electro-optical characteristics of liquid crystal (LC) layers used in display devices, for example, by decreasing control voltages and response times, decreasing typical parasitic effects such as backflows and image sticking. Analysis of the structural properties of the nanocarbon–doped nematic LC in near-surface layers at LC-solid interfaces will be carried out. Specular neutron reflectometry will be applied to solutions of detonation nanodiamonds (DND) or single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in nematic LC in a standard geometry of cell for optical and dielectric measurements (tens of microns thick). The task is to find out structural characteristics of solid/LC interface in terms of SLD profile, as well as how far this depends on the concentration of DND/SWCNT. The applicability of the wedge-shaped sample cell geometry proposed here was previously tested on another facility. A small cell volume is needed for several reasons. Firstly, this is the saving of material, especially deuterated. Second, in the case of nematic LCs, such confinement makes it possible to control the alignment of sample molecules over the entire area of the container, preventing splitting into domains with different director vectors.