Carbon dots stabilized photoluminescent blue phase liquid crystals

Ying Chen; Huaruo Cui; Ran Duan; Ruiqi Tang; Yingping Tong; Dongyu Zhao; Wanli He

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/acebf8

Carbon dots stabilized photoluminescent blue phase liquid crystals

Nanotechnology. 2023 Aug 22;34(45). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/acebf8.

Authors

Ying Chen¹, Huaruo Cui², Ran Duan¹, Ruiqi Tang¹, Yingping Tong¹, Dongyu Zhao¹, Wanli He²

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Materials Physics and Chemistry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 37524081
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/acebf8

Abstract

Blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) have significant potential in the field of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and are proposed as potential next-generation of LCDs candidates. However, BPLCs do not emit light directly and need an extra backlight device. As a result, the blue phase liquid crystal display retains the disadvantages of low brightness and low energy efficiency, which remarkably limit its application. Recently, as a kind of novel fluorescent carbon nanomaterials, carbon dots (CDs) have captured considerable attention because of their excellent optical properties. Here, CDs were directly synthesized by a simple solvothermal method and introduced into BPLCs. By combining the excellent optical properties of CDs with the blue phase liquid crystal system, the photoluminescent blue phase liquid crystals (CDs-BPLCs) with self-photoluminescence are prepared. Meanwhile, the stability of BPLCs can be improved by CDs. Such CDs-BPLCs have enormous potential in the development of novel energy-saving display devices.

Keywords: blue phase liquid crystals; carbon dots; photoluminescent.