Complementary studies of BaTiO₃ nanoparticles suspended in a ferroelectric liquid-crystalline mixture

¹  Institute of Physical Chemistry, TU Darmstadt - Petersenstr. 20, Darmstadt, Germany, EU
²  Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University - Reymonta 4, Kraków, Poland, EU
³  University of Colorado at Colorado Springs - Colorado Springs, CO 80933, USA

Corresponding author: adriana.mikulko@uj.edu.pl

Received: 7 May 2009
Accepted: 15 July 2009

Abstract

In scope of this paper, DSC, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), electro-optic and dielectric studies have been done on BaTiO₃ nanoparticles dispersed in a ferroelectric liquid-crystalline (FLC) matrix. Electro-optic studies showed slightly lower spontaneous polarization, faster response time and relatively higher coercive voltage for the nanocomposite as compared to the pure FLC mixture. Dielectric measurements revealed a lower relative dielectric permittivity for the nanocomposite. This paper addresses all the issues starting from the kind of nanoparticles and FLC materials used for the preparation of nanocomposites, the various measurements done and a detailed discussion on the observed results.