Observation of Flexoelectricity in a Mixture of Carbon Single Walled Nanotubes with a Nematic Liquid Crystal

Abstract

We have measured the modulus of the flexo-surface polarization term: 5.1 pC/m for the case of the nematic E7. The extension of the theory of Helfrich for the case of flexoelectric bending-splaying of a nematic layer permitted to measure also the modulus of the flexoelectric sum: 15 pC/m. The inclusion of minute amounts of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with a concentration below 10(-3) wt. % changes the results obtained as follows: 14.7 pC/m and 78.7 pC/m, respectively. Additionally we have measured the value of the surface energy for the pure nematic E7 and the E7/SWCNTs mixture.