Exploration of nanofibre/nanoparticle/PDLC composite system

The electro-optical properties of the nanofibre/nanoparticle/polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC) composite system were investigated. The nanofiber network was prepared by electrostatic spinning and introduced into the PDLC system as a carrier of nanoparticles. The effects of nanofibers and the doping of CeO2 nanoparticles on the PDLC system were investigated. It was found that the nanofibers had a significant impact on the response time of PDLC, while the nanoparticles could improve the contrast of PDLC very well. The fiber morphology, and the polymer mesh morphology, were characterised by SEM; the distribution of nanoparticles on the fiber was characterized by EDS. The experimental results show that nanofiber/nanoparticle doping can optimise the performance of PDLC and achieve low response time as well as high contrast in display applications.