The embedding of liquid crystal (LC) droplets into polymer matrices yields polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs), which play an important role in the formation of mechanically resistant films for flexible photonic devices. Despite the fact that PDLCs respond to a variety of physical and chemical stimuli, LCs have had limited success in detecting environmental pollutants due to a lack of reactive functional groups in their structures. In this work, we execute the idea of integrating functionalized carbon nanotubes (f-CNTs) into PDLCs to accelerate the absorption of gas molecules at room temperature (RT). The proposed f-CNT-PDLC sensor device was prepared by depositing the composite mixture onto an interdigitated electrode substrate and carrying out phase separation under UV light exposure. Compared to the pure PDLC device, the proposed device exhibited a response of ~ 12.9 and 1% for 100 and 5 ppm of NO₂ gas, and a linear relationship was obtained with gas concentrations. Furthermore, this device displayed a good reproducibility over five cycles, exhibiting an excellent selectivity against other interfering gases, such as NO, H₂S, CO, and NH₃. The boosted response was attributed to charge transport between the NO₂ gas molecules and the f-CNTs, which was detected by measuring the change in electrical resistance caused by the f-CNTs, in addition to the orientational phase modulation of the f-CNTs and the LCs within a droplet. Our experimental results revealed that the proposed f-CNT-doped PDLCs are promising candidates for sensing various physical and chemical stimuli.

将液晶 (LC) 液滴嵌入聚合物基质中会产生聚合物分散的液晶 (PDLC)，它在柔性光子器件的机械抗性薄膜的形成中发挥着重要作用。尽管 PDLC 对各种物理和化学刺激作出反应，但由于结构中缺乏反应性官能团，LC 在检测环境污染物方面的成功有限。在这项工作中，我们执行了将功能化碳纳米管 (f-CNT) 集成到 PDLC 中的想法，以加速室温 (RT) 下气体分子的吸收。所提出的 f-CNT-PDLC 传感器装置是通过将复合混合物沉积在叉指电极基板上并在紫外光照射下进行相分离来制备的。与纯 PDLC 器件相比，₂气体，与气体浓度呈线性关系。此外，该装置在五个循环中表现出良好的重现性，对其他干扰气体（如 NO、H ₂ S、CO 和 NH ₃ ）表现出优异的选择性。增强的响应归因于 NO ₂气体分子和 f-CNT 之间的电荷传输，除了 f-CNT 的定向相位调制和液滴内的 LC。我们的实验结果表明，所提出的 f-CNT 掺杂 PDLC 是传感各种物理和化学刺激的有希望的候选者。