Effects of Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes and Emerging Supramolecular Structures on Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals: Physico-Chemical Aspects

Abstract

The current state of the study of different liquid crystalline (LC) systems doped with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is discussed. An attempt is endeavored to outline the state-of-the-art technology that has emerged after two past decades. Systematization and analysis are presented for the integration of single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes in thermotropic (nematic, smectic, cholesteric, ferroelectric, etc.) and lyotropic LCs. Special attention is paid to the effects of alignment and supramolecular organization resulting from orientational coupling between CNTs and the LC matrix. The effects of the specific inter-molecular and inter-particle interactions and intriguing microstructural, electromagnetic, percolation, optical, and electro-optical properties are also discussed.

Eliminating Ambiguities in Electrical Measurements of Advanced Liquid Crystal Materials

“…From both academic and industrial points of view, it is crucial to study electrical properties of such materials. Research results obtained by independent teams during the last two decades point to very non-trivial ionic effects in liquid crystals doped with nanoparticles of different origins (ferroelectric [62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70], magnetic [52,[71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78], semiconductor and dielectric [79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87], carbon-based [88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98], and metal [99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106], additional references can be found in recent topical reviews [31,…”