5045www.MaterialsViews.com wileyonlinelibrary.com capacities were found for materials based on functionalized biological waste [ 13 ] or clay-polymer composites, [ 14 ] but these materials were not selective. Recently, a charge-selective supramolecular hydrogel [ 15 ] with high adsorption capacity was published, but the adsorption process was slow. Materials which show high selectivity as well as high capacity in combination with a fast adsorption process are practically unavailable.We have previously reported a fabrication process for nanoporous membranes based on the self-organization of reactive thermotropic hydrogen-bonded smectic liquid crystals (LCs). [ 16,17 ] The membranes were created by photo-polymerization to lock the smectic structure into a network followed by an alkaline treatment to break the hydrogen bonds. Minute interstices are formed and the smectic nature of the material results in pores with a two-dimensional geometry. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the width of the straight pores is around 1 nm. A dye was used to measure the local pH in the pores and to prove the porosity. Furthermore, these pores could be fi lled with silver ions, and subsequently reduced to silver nanoparticles. The diameter and orientation of these nanoparticles were controlled by the pore size and shape of the material. [ 18 ] This nanoporous material is expected to be a good candidate for an adsorbent material due to the well-organized structure with high surface area and permeability, which promote the adsorption capacity and kinetics. Furthermore, the confi ned pore interior will be benefi cial for selective adsorption. Nanoporous, LC networks have been studied earlier for use as nanoporous membranes, [19][20][21] in host-guest chemistry, [ 22 ] molecular imprinting, and chiral recognition. To our knowledge, however, nanoporous materials based on reactive thermotropic liquid crystals have never been considered as selective and fast adsorbents with a high capacity. Results and Discussion Preparation and Characterization of a Smectic Liquid Crystalline NetworkThe LC mixture with 4-(6-acryloyloxylhexyloxy)benzoic acid (6OBA) and 1,4-phenylene bis(4-(6-(acryloyloxy)hexyloxy) Responsive Nanoporous Smectic Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks as Effi cient and Selective AdsorbentsHuub P. C. van Kuringen , Geert M. Eikelboom , Ivelina K. Shishmanova , Dirk J. Broer, * and Albertus P. H. J. Schenning * An effi cient and selective porous nanostructured polymer adsorbent is prepared from smectic liquid crystals. The adsorption study is performed by using hydrophilic dyes as water pollutants. The anionic pore interior of the nanoporous polymer is able to selectively adsorb cationic methylene blue over anionic methyl orange. Even zwitter ionic rhodamine B could hardly be adsorbed due to the presence of the anionic group in this dye. The confi ned pore dimensions allow size selective adsorption; a 4 th generation cationic dendrimer is not able to diffuse into the nanometer sized pores. The porous nature of the polymer p...

Anisotropic swelling and deswelling of smectic liquid crystal networks have been observed in response to pH changes.

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A nanoporous smectic liquid crystalline polymer network has been exploited to fabricate photo patternable organic-inorganic hybrid materials, wherein, the nanoporous channels control the diameter and orientational order of the silver nanoparticles.

A nanostructured porous material is obtained by crosslinking of a self‐assembled system consisting of columnar liquid crystals with polyamines and removal of the template. For this purpose, a columnar liquid crystal with liquid crystalline properties at room temperature is synthesized and fully characterized. The orthogonal self‐assembly of the columnar liquid crystal with polyamines (i.e., PPI dendrimers) results in the formation of nanosegregated structures. When crosslinked by photopolymerization a nanostructured crosslinked material is obtained. Partial removal of the polyamine template leads to a nanostructured porous material, which is characterized and the absorbent properties are investigated. The polarity of the porous material is probed and the porous material is used for the selective absorption of cationic dye molecules.