Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars effects on the thermal-transport properties of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals

Abstract

We present the depolarization field effects (Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars effect) for the thermal transport properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal composites under a frequency-dependent electric field. The experiments were conducted on polystyrene/4-Cyano-4${}^{\ensuremath{'}}$-pentylbiphenyl (PS/5CB) PDLCs of 73 vol.% and 85 vol.% liquid crystal (LC) concentrations. A self-consistent field approximation model is used to deduce the electrical properties of polymer and LC materials as well as the threshold electric field. Electric field-varying (at constant frequency) experiments were also conducted to calculate the interfacial thermal resistance between the LC droplets and polymer matrix as well as to find the elastic constant of LCs in droplet form.