“…We end this review with a discussion of the case that the LC is not a host for the CNTs, but rather it is formed by the CNTs themselves, a research field that has been developed mainly by the groups around Windle 34,35,38 , Poulin 32,36,49 and Smalley 33,37,59 . The basis for this phenomenon is the classical Onsager argument for liquid crystal phase formation in concentrated suspensions of rigid rods 60,61 : if the aspect ratio of the rods and their concentration are both large enough, the free energy of the system is reduced by forming a nematic 10 phase, the cost of reduced orientational entropy being less than the gain in translational entropy (the latter corresponds to a decrease of excluded volume).…”