258=[586]
S. Kumar et al.
increase in the current was observed as shown in Figure 4. Detailed
AC and DC conductivity experiments are in progress and will be pub-
lished later.
CONCLUSION
Polarizing optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and
conductivity results indicate inclusion of thiolate-protected gold nano-
particles into a discotic liquid crystalline matrix. Increasing the
amount of GNPs, increases the tendency of phase segregation and
decreases the isotropic temperature. The conductivity of DLC-GNP
composites is significantly higher compared with the pure discotic
compound. Therefore, these inorganic-organic liquid crystal hybrid
systems may be extremely important for many device applications
such as photoconductors, light emitting diodes, photovoltaic solar
cells, sensors, optical data storage, thin film transistors, etc.
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