Doping a mixture of two smectogenic molecular species with BaTiO3-nanoparticles

A mixture of two smectic liquid crystals was doped with harvested ferroelectric barium titanate nanoparticles and investigated with wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering during cooling from the isotropic phase. A decrease in the isotropic to nematic and in the nematic to partially bilayer smectic-Ad (SmAd) phase transition temperatures was observed accompanied by an increase of the layer spacing in the SmAd phase.