Stability and orientational order of gold nanorods in nematic suspensions: a small angle X-ray scattering study

Thomas, M. R., Hallett, J. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9747-9980, Klein, S., Mann, S., Perriman, A. W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2205-9364 and Richardson, R. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5084-2463 (2015) Stability and orientational order of gold nanorods in nematic suspensions: a small angle X-ray scattering study. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, 610 (1). pp. 44-50. ISSN 1563-5287 doi: 10.1080/15421406.2015.1025204 (Conference Proceeding: 25th International Liquid Crystal Conference (ILCC 2014))

Abstract/Summary

Stable suspensions of gold nanorods in 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) have been prepared by capping the nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol (PEG). Small angle X-ray scattering has been used to characterize the orientational order of the gold nanorods and the properties of any aggregates. It was found that the nanorods had a very high degree of orientational order with respect to the director of the 5CB matrix and this could be redirected by an applied electric field at 2kHz. Two different PEG molecular weights were investigated and it was found that the lower (1.9kDa) gave exceptionally high order parameters, above 0.9.