Liquid Crystalline Behavior and Related Properties of Colloidal Systems of Inorganic Oxide Nanosheets

Materials

Teruyuki Nakato¹ 

[1] Division of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering (BASE), Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan

关键词: layered compound;    inorganic nanosheet;    colloid;    liquid crystal;    sol–gel transition;    clay;    semiconductor photocatalyst;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma2041734

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Inorganic layered crystals exemplified by clay minerals can be exfoliated in solvents to form colloidal dispersions of extremely thin inorganic layers that are called nanosheets. The obtained “nanosheet colloids” form lyotropic liquid crystals because of the highly anisotropic shape of the nanosheets. This system is a rare example of liquid crystals consisting of inorganic crystalline mesogens. Nanosheet colloids of photocatalytically active semiconducting oxides can exhibit unusual photoresponses that are not observed for organic liquid crystals. This review summarizes experimental work on the phase behavior of the nanosheet colloids as well as photochemical reactions observed in the clay and semiconducting nanosheets system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2009 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.