Thermodynamics Research Center / ThermoML | Thermochimica Acta

ABSTRACT

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 (less than1 wt%), columnar hexagonal-isotropic (Colhp-IL) transition temperature and enthalpy ( H) decrease rapidly while in the second region i.e. higher concentrations (greater than1 wt%) Colhp-IL transition temperature and 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.