Fullerene-Based Nanosurfactant for the Automatic Homeotropic Alignment of Liquid Crystals

Chemically functionalized organic-inorganic hybrid nanoparticles have significant benefits for automatic liquid crystal (LC) alignment but are still limited to well-balanced self-assembly without wasting materials and deleterious aggregation for LC display. In this paper, we propose a promising homeotropic alignment (HA) guide nanosurfactant (C₆₀D) consisting of different distinct molecular segments in LC affinity. By doping C₆₀D into a nematic LC medium, the HA nanolayer is automatically constructed on the surface and guides the good alignment of LC molecules. Notably, this system exhibits exceptional material efficiency (0.01 wt %). Furthermore, it is demonstrated that an electro-optical switching modulator using C₆₀D is reliably working. The precisely developed HA-guide C₆₀D nanosurfactant will offer a way for LCD application as well as a useful guideline for designing nanomaterials.