Abstract
•Effect of ferroelectric nanoparticles on the electrical and dielectric properties of a nematic 8CB is discussed.•The NPs inclusion to 8CB decreases the dielectric permittivity and ionic conductivity by trapping ionic impurities.•The purification process improves ionic behaviors such as ion concentration, diffusion constant and the mobility.
Ionic behavior in liquid crystal is a topic with intense interest in many fields of material science, such as dielectric materials. In this work ferroelectric nanoparticles Lithium Cobalt Molybdenum Oxide(Li2Co2(MoO4)3) are synthesized, characterized and dispersed in 4′-octyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (8CB) liquid crystal. It is found that the synthesized nanoparticles have a very large impact on the dielectric and impedance spectra. By fitting a suitable equivalent electric circuit model to the experimental data we demonstrate the change of electro–physical parameters of the liquid crystal in the bulk and at the liquid crystal–metal electrode interface. The dopants have an effect on the conductivity, reduces the viscosity and the response time, which can be correlate to the capturing of impurity ions. Temperature dependence of ionic behavior such as ion concentration, diffusion constant and the mobility are investigated. According to our experimental investigation, suppress of impurity ions by ferroelectric nanoparticles is achieved.