Integrating 2D Nanomaterials into Liquid Crystals for Multifunctional Nanocomposite Films

Abstract

We report a facile strategy to exfoliate and disperse transition metal dichalcogenides (WS2, MoS2, VS2) and MXene (Ti3C2T x ) directly within liquid crystals (LCs), yielding stable multifunctional nanocomposites. The multifunctional composite films exhibited unique properties, highlighted by the nanomaterial-mediated cholesteric-to-isotropic transition in the LC/Ti3C2T x composite films at lower applied fields than the LC film alone. In addition, we demonstrated the preparation of free-standing LC/Ti3C2T x composite films having both distinct LC and nanomaterial optical characteristics. Our solvent-free approach also enabled alignment-layer-free blade coating of birefringent composite films without postsynthesis processing. Significant polarization-dependent absorption was observed for LC/MoS2 films due to the anisotropy of the composite. The facile film processing and composite film properties are appealing for the fabrication of next-generation optoelectronics.