Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

In this chapter we discuss the benefits, peculiarities and main challenges related to nanoparticle templating in lyotropic liquid crystals. We first give a brief bird’s-eye view of the field, discussing di↵erent nanoparticles as well as di↵erent lyotropic hosts that have been explored, but then quickly focus on the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in surfactant-based lyotropic nematic phases. We discuss in some detail how the trans- fer of orientational order from liquid crystal host to nanoparticle guest can be verified and which degree of ordering can be expected, as well as the importance of choosing the right surfactant and its concentra- tion for the stability of the nanoparticle suspension. We introduce a method for dispersing nanoparticles with an absolute minimum of stabi- lizing surfactant, based on dispersion below the Kra↵t temperature, and we discuss the peculiar phenomenon of filament formation in lyotropic nematic phases with a su cient concentration of well-dispersed carbon nanotubes. Finally, we describe how the total surfactant concentration in micellar nematics can be greatly reduced by combining cat- and an- ionic surfactants, and we discuss how nanotubes can help in inducing the liquid crystal phase close to the isotropic–nematic boundary.