Effects of Ni particles with different morphologies on electro-optical properties of nematic liquid crystal

Twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal display mode cells doped with different Ni particles were prepared, such as Ni bowls-like particles, Ni flowers particles and Ni spheres particles. The effects of different Ni particles on the threshold voltage, saturation voltage, contrast ratio and response time of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) display mode cells were investigated with a liquid crystal display parameters tester. It is found that the addition of Ni particles with different morphologies decrease the threshold voltage and the saturation voltage, increase the cantrast ratio and reduce the response times significantly. Especially, the TN cells doped with the Ni bowls-like particles have the best properties, the driving voltage could be reduced by 13.77%, the contrast ratio increases by 35.55% and response times decreases to 9.390 ms. The experiments indicate that the different shapes, structures and surface area of Ni particles have obvious effects on the electro-optical properties of liquid crystals. The larger the surface areas and the curvature of the bowls-like shape are, the better the electro-optical properties are.