Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal nanocomposites comprising montmorillonite clay modified by conducting pentamerous oligoaniline

Pentamerous oligoaniline (POA) was protonated with sulfuric acid to form emeraldine salts (ES) and then intercalated in montmorillonite (MMT) CL120 to develop a functional conductive organo-layered material. The characteristics of the modified clay CL120/ES-POA were analyzed by wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) to find the d-spacing of the MMT layer distance, and by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for the oligoaniline functional group in CL120/ES-POA, and high-resolution thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to determine the theoretical intercalation capacity of the modifying agent in the clay. We successfully intercalated the ES-POA into the MMT by ionic exchange reaction. Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) composites were prepared from the modified clay of 1 wt% loaded in the mixtures of 49 wt% photosensitive monomer and 50 wt% nematic liquid crystal (NLC), in a specific case, so as to generate novel functional nanocomposites. The hybridization of CL120/ES-POA clearly improved the electro-optical properties of the PDLCs. In this work, doping CL120/ES-POA at 1 wt% beneficially lowered the driving voltage by almost 70%, increased the transmission contrast ratio by five times and reduced the response time from 4.6 to 0.7 ms at 25 V-rms at the expense of the viewing-angle properties.