Executive Summary : | Owing to the fact that hybrid systems may have new physical properties and hence offer new potential for various technical applications, LC-nano composites have emerged as one of the emerging research area in the field of soft matter and nano science. Since soft matter systems are highly sensitive to external stimuli, such composite materials utilize these soft surrounding medium to reconfigure nano structures and to tune their own properties. However, the enhancement mainly depends on the type and intrinsic nature of the incorporated nanoparticles. Hence, one of the promising approaches for assembling and manipulating nanoparticles structures is soft material templating. Under the current project we are planning to undertake detailed and systematic measurements on the effect of dispersing carbon-based nano materials on liquid crystalline system. It is expected that inclusion of this material into LC media, will not only bring in favourable changes in the conductivity, birefringence, photoluminescence and electro-optic properties of LC systems, but will also bring in the properties of LC that can be used to align these nanoparticles, which indeed seek high priority in recent days due to the high demand to obtain low production cost with highly effective and efficient, user friendly, biocompatible devices using nanotechnology not only in the opto - electronic applications but also in the energy sector. |