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      Graphene-Augmented Polymer Stabilization: Drastically Reduced and Temperature-Independent Threshold and Improved Contrast Liquid Crystal Device

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      ACS Omega
      American Chemical Society

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          Abstract

          Polymers reinforced with nanofillers, especially graphene in recent times, have continued to attract attention to realize novel materials that are cheap and also have better properties. At a different level, encapsulating liquid crystals (LCs) in polymer networks not only adds mechanical strength, but could also result in device-based refractive index mismatch. Here, we describe a novel strategy combining the best of both these concepts to create graphene-incorporated polymer-stabilized LC (PSLC) devices. The presence of graphene associated with the virtual surface of the polymer network besides introducing distinct morphological changes to the polymer architecture as seen by electron microscopy brings out several advantages for the PSLC characteristics, which include 7-fold lowered critical voltage, its temperature invariance, and enhanced contrast ratio between field-off scattering/field-on transparent states. The results bring to fore the importance of working at very-dilute-concentration limits of the filler nanoparticles in augmenting the desired properties. These observations open up a new vista for polymer–graphene composites in the area of device engineering, including substrate-free smart windows.

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          Nanocomposites in context

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            Nanoscale effects leading to non-Einstein-like decrease in viscosity.

            Nanoparticles have been shown to influence mechanical properties; however, transport properties such as viscosity have not been adequately studied. This might be due to the common observation that particle addition to liquids produces an increase in viscosity, even in polymeric liquids, as predicted by Einstein nearly a century ago. But confinement and surface effects provided by nanoparticles have been shown to produce conformational changes to polymer molecules, so it is expected that nanoparticles will affect the macroscopic viscosity. To minimize extraneous enthalpic or other effects, we blended organic nanoparticles, synthesized by intramolecular crosslinking of single polystyrene chains, with linear polystyrene macromolecules. Remarkably, the blend viscosity was found to decrease and scale with the change in free volume introduced by the nanoparticles and not with the decrease in entanglement. Indeed, the entanglements did not seem to be affected at all, suggesting unusual polymer dynamics.
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              Graphene fiber: a new trend in carbon fibers

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                ACS Omega
                ACS Omega
                ao
                acsodf
                ACS Omega
                American Chemical Society
                2470-1343
                07 January 2019
                31 January 2019
                : 4
                : 1
                : 403-411
                Affiliations
                [1]Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences , Jalahalli, Bengaluru 560013, India
                Author notes
                Article
                10.1021/acsomega.8b03026
                6648514
                a418559d-19ba-447e-9b65-2eb3eee3af47
                Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society

                This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License, which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.

                History
                : 31 October 2018
                : 18 December 2018
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                Custom metadata
                ao8b03026
                ao-2018-030262

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