Heat transport in polymer-dispersed liquid crystals under electric field

Abstract

The concepts of effective thermal conductivity and interfacial thermal contact resistance in composite media are applied to study heat transport in polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC). In these systems, the thermal properties of liquid crystal inclusions are changed by an imposed electric field. The photopyroelectric (PPE) technique with a cell allowing the application of an electric field to the sample is used to measure the thermal parameters. A model based on effective medium approximation is used to assess the impact of interfaces on the flow of heat through the determination of the Kapitza radius. It was found that the effect of interfaces becomes dominant compared to the volume conduction of the droplet when the liquid crystal (LC) droplet radius becomes smaller than 1 micron. The comparison of the thermal behavior of LC in the droplets with that of bulk liquid crystal allowed to evaluate the effect of confinement on the LC nematic phase. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.