Gold nanoparticles in plastic columnar discotic liquid crystalline material

We have studied the effect of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) on the thermodynamical, optical and dielectrical parameters of a discotic liquid crystal (DLC) namely hexabutyloxytriphenylene (HAT4). It has been observed that with the increase of GNPs concentration in DLC, composites shows two different regions. In the first regions i.e. low concentrations (<1 wt%), columnar hexagonal-isotropic (Col(hp)-I-L) transition temperature and enthalpy (Delta H) decrease rapidly while in the second region i.e. higher concentrations (>1 wt%) Col(hp)-I-L transition temperature and Delta H are approximately constant. It has been observed that, in the case of composites having 0.2 and 0.6 wt% of GNPs, conductivity has enhanced but it is poor as compared to the composite having 1.2 wt% of GNPs. For 1.2 wt% of GNPs, conductivity has increased by seven orders of magnitude as compared to the DLC. Optical study suggests that band gap of nanocomposites has decreased due to dispersion of GNPs. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.