Novel Trends in Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

Abstract

We introduce and shortly summarize a variety of more recent aspects of lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs), which have drawn the attention of the liquid crystal and soft matter community and have recently led to an increasing number of groups studying this fascinating class of materials, alongside their normal activities in thermotopic LCs. The diversity of topics ranges from amphiphilic to inorganic liquid crystals, clays and biological liquid crystals, such as viruses, cellulose or DNA, to strongly anisotropic materials such as nanotubes, nanowires or graphene oxide dispersed in isotropic solvents. We conclude our admittedly somewhat subjective overview with materials exhibiting some fascinating properties, such as chromonics, ferroelectric lyotropics and active liquid crystals and living lyotropics, before we point out some possible and emerging applications of a class of materials that has long been standing in the shadow of the well-known applications of thermotropic liquid crystals, namely displays and electro-optic devices.

Doping Liquid Crystals of Colloidal Inorganic Nanotubes by Additive-Free Metal Nanoparticles

“…[6][7][8][9][10] In recent years, significant developments have been proposed by doping liquid crystal phases with inorganic nanoparticles (NPs), bringing new striking functionalities depending on the physical characteristic of these NPs. [11][12][13] For instance, noble metal NPs support light driven collective oscillations, known as surface plasmon resonances that can be merged with the characteristic properties of the LC host for applications such as chiral plasmonic metamaterials 14,15 or dynamic color displays. 16,17 Other NPs types such as quantum dots, iron oxides or ferroelectric metal oxides have been dispersed in LC host to form composite materials with enhanced electro-optical properties.…”

Fluidos complexos na matéria condensada:os cristais líquidos

“…Do ponto de vista da ciência básica esses materiais colocam questões fundamentais que nos auxiliam a compreender em mais detalhes a estrutura da matéria [18]. Uma dessas questões, ainda não completamente respondida, é como a informação da quiralidade passa de uma micela (ou lamela) para outra, sendo que entre essas superestruturas há apenas água.…”

The Influence of Hydrophobic Blocks of PEO-Containing Copolymers on Glyceryl Monooleate Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery

“…Lipids, as a primary component of liposomal drug delivery systems, have been at the focus of scientific interest owing to their unique self-assembly features. Among the numerous nanostructures formed by lipids, lyotropic liquid crystals (LLC) or liquid crystalline nanoparticles (LCNPs) with highly ordered internal structure are especially important objects for research [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. According to the type of internal organization, LLC can generally be classified into three categories: lamellar phase (L α ), cubic phase (V 2 ) and hexagonal phase (H 2 ), while the dispersion of each phase is known as liposomes, cubosomes and hexosomes, respectively [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”