Dielectric and electrical characterization of 5CB nematic liquid crystal doped with silver nanoparticles

Thin films (25 μm) of nanocomposites formed from nematic liquid crystal (LC) pentylcyano-biphenyl (5CB) doped with 0.5% wt. silver (Ag) nanospheres with a mean diameter ∼ 10 nm were characterized by electrical measurements and dielectric spectroscopy in the frequency range from 1 mHz to 100 kHz. By using LC cells in which the electrodes are stripes of 1.2 mm width separated by a distance of 50 μm, it was possible to study the properties of Ag-5CB nematic nanocomposites by applying the external electric field either in the plane or perpendicular to the plane of the films. The results were compared with those obtained for undoped nematic 5CB in identical configurations of the experiments.