Tunable surface wettability of ZnO nanoparticle arrays for controlling the alignment of liquid crystals

Yueh Feng Chung; Mu Zhe Chen; Sheng-Hsiung Yang; Shie-Chang Jeng

doi:10.1021/acsami.5b01157

Tunable surface wettability of ZnO nanoparticle arrays for controlling the alignment of liquid crystals

Yueh Feng Chung, Mu Zhe Chen, Sheng-Hsiung Yang, Shie-Chang Jeng^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

The control of the liquid crystal (LC) alignment is very important for both academic research and practical applications. LC molecules aligned on the ZnO nanoparticle arrays (ZnO NPAs) are demonstrated and the pretilt angles of LCs can be controlled by using ZnO NPAs with different surface wettability. The wettability of ZnO NPAs fabricated by the solution-based hydrothermal method can be controlled by changing the annealing temperature of the as-prepared ZnO NPAs. The measurements of the energy-dispersive spectra and photoluminescence have shown that the chemical properties of ZnO NPAs have been changed with the annealing temperature. Our results show that the pretilt angle of LCs can be tuned continuously from ∼0 to ∼90° as the contact angle of water on ZnO NPAs changes from 33 to 108°.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	9619-9624
Number of pages	6
Journal	ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume	7
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b01157
State	Published - 13 May 2015

Keywords

liquid crystal alignment
pretilt angle
wettability
ZnO nanoparticle arrays

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10.1021/acsami.5b01157

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title = "Tunable surface wettability of ZnO nanoparticle arrays for controlling the alignment of liquid crystals",

abstract = "The control of the liquid crystal (LC) alignment is very important for both academic research and practical applications. LC molecules aligned on the ZnO nanoparticle arrays (ZnO NPAs) are demonstrated and the pretilt angles of LCs can be controlled by using ZnO NPAs with different surface wettability. The wettability of ZnO NPAs fabricated by the solution-based hydrothermal method can be controlled by changing the annealing temperature of the as-prepared ZnO NPAs. The measurements of the energy-dispersive spectra and photoluminescence have shown that the chemical properties of ZnO NPAs have been changed with the annealing temperature. Our results show that the pretilt angle of LCs can be tuned continuously from ∼0 to ∼90° as the contact angle of water on ZnO NPAs changes from 33 to 108°.",

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T1 - Tunable surface wettability of ZnO nanoparticle arrays for controlling the alignment of liquid crystals

AU - Chung, Yueh Feng

AU - Chen, Mu Zhe

AU - Yang, Sheng-Hsiung

AU - Jeng, Shie-Chang

PY - 2015/5/13

Y1 - 2015/5/13

N2 - The control of the liquid crystal (LC) alignment is very important for both academic research and practical applications. LC molecules aligned on the ZnO nanoparticle arrays (ZnO NPAs) are demonstrated and the pretilt angles of LCs can be controlled by using ZnO NPAs with different surface wettability. The wettability of ZnO NPAs fabricated by the solution-based hydrothermal method can be controlled by changing the annealing temperature of the as-prepared ZnO NPAs. The measurements of the energy-dispersive spectra and photoluminescence have shown that the chemical properties of ZnO NPAs have been changed with the annealing temperature. Our results show that the pretilt angle of LCs can be tuned continuously from ∼0 to ∼90° as the contact angle of water on ZnO NPAs changes from 33 to 108°.

AB - The control of the liquid crystal (LC) alignment is very important for both academic research and practical applications. LC molecules aligned on the ZnO nanoparticle arrays (ZnO NPAs) are demonstrated and the pretilt angles of LCs can be controlled by using ZnO NPAs with different surface wettability. The wettability of ZnO NPAs fabricated by the solution-based hydrothermal method can be controlled by changing the annealing temperature of the as-prepared ZnO NPAs. The measurements of the energy-dispersive spectra and photoluminescence have shown that the chemical properties of ZnO NPAs have been changed with the annealing temperature. Our results show that the pretilt angle of LCs can be tuned continuously from ∼0 to ∼90° as the contact angle of water on ZnO NPAs changes from 33 to 108°.

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KW - pretilt angle

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Tunable surface wettability of ZnO nanoparticle arrays for controlling the alignment of liquid crystals

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Keywords

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