Inorganic lyotropic liquid crystals

Semiconductor Nanorod Liquid Crystals and Their Assembly on a Substrate

“…Numerical simulation on rigid rods has revealed the possibility of formation of smectic phases, and this has been confirmed experimentally in a few systems 13 . Similar structures have been observed with AFM study of the smectic layers formed from dry sol sediments of needle-like β-FeOOH particlesEven though so far we do not have any direct evidence of smectic phases in CdSe nanorod solutions, the superlattice structures observed here suggest their possible presence.…”

Semiconductor Nanorod Liquid Crystals

“…This can be explained by the convective transfer of CdSe nanocrystals from the bulk of the solution t o the edges caused by the solvent evaporation (30), which makes the local concentration high enough for the isotropic-liquid crystalline phase transition. Until now we have not observed smectic phases in concentrated solution; however, smectic phases have been predicted by Monte Carlo simulation (31) and have been observed in a variety of systems (12,13). Formation of smectic phases requires a solution of higher concentration, which is not easily achievable in our system.…”

“…Over the last several decades there has been continuing and growing interest in inorganic liquid crystals, but the studies have been limited by available samples to molecular wires or ribbons, or highly polydisperse insulating colloidal disks and rods such as gibbsite (Al(OH) 3 ) and boehmite (AlO(OH)) (12,13). The poor monodispersity of these colloidal rods also prevents the quantitative comparison between experiments and theories ( 14).…”

Liquid crystal phase transitions in suspensions of mineral colloids: new life from old roots

“…In this contribution, we discuss the field of mineral colloidal liquid crystals (MCLCs), which we define as phases with a liquid crystal (LC) (super)structure formed by individual mineral particles within colloidal suspensions (for extensive reviews, see [1][2][3]). Since LCs display a partially ordered long-range structure, which always involves orientational order, these colloidal mineral particles necessarily have to be sufficiently anisometric (i.e.…”