Carbon nanotubes in liquid crystals

We review the research on carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersion in liquid crystals (LCs), focusing mainly on the approaches where the aim is to align CNTs along the LC director field, but also covering briefly the proposed possibility to enhance thermotropic LCs by CNT doping. All relevant LC types are considered: thermotropic LC hosts allowing dynamic CNT realignment, lyotropic LC hosts allowing very high concentration of CNTs uniformly aligned over macroscopic areas and consequent removal of the LC, and LC phases formed by CNTs themselves, used in spinning high-quality carbon nanotube fibres. We also discuss the issue of CNT dispersion in some detail, since successful nanotube separation is imperative for success in this field regardless of the type of LC that is considered. We end by defining a few major challenges for the development of the field over the next few years, critical for reaching the stage where industrially viable protocols for LC-based CNT alignment can be defined.

[1]  R. Thiruvengadathan,et al.  Preparation and characterization of a carbon nanotube-lyotropic liquid crystal composite. , 2006, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[2]  P. G. de Gennes,et al.  Theory of magnetic suspensions in liquid crystals , 1970 .

[3]  C. Joachim,et al.  Combing a carbon nanotube on a flat metal-insulator-metal nanojunction , 1999 .

[4]  S. Roth,et al.  Effect of phenyl rings in liquid crystal molecules on SWCNTs studied by Raman spectroscopy , 2006 .

[5]  Raikher,et al.  Orientation of a solid particle embedded in a monodomain nematic liquid crystal. , 1994, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics.

[6]  Helmut R. Brand,et al.  Liquid Crystalline Polymers , 1993 .

[7]  P. Poulin,et al.  Macroscopic fibers and ribbons of oriented carbon nanotubes. , 2000, Science.

[8]  S. Hawkins,et al.  Aligned silane-treated MWCNT/liquid crystal polymer films , 2008, Nanotechnology.

[9]  Hyunhyub Ko,et al.  Liquid-crystalline processing of highly oriented carbon nanotube arrays for thin-film transistors. , 2006, Nano letters.

[10]  S. Roth,et al.  Spontaneous macroscopic carbon nanotube alignment via colloidal suspension in hexagonal columnar lyotropic liquid crystals. , 2008, Soft matter.

[11]  W. D. de Heer,et al.  Carbon Nanotubes--the Route Toward Applications , 2002, Science.

[12]  Joachim O. Rädler,et al.  Structure of DNA-Cationic Liposome Complexes: DNA Intercalation in Multilamellar Membranes in Distinct Interhelical Packing Regimes , 1997, Science.

[13]  S. Roth,et al.  Simultaneous alignment and dispersion of carbon nanotubes with lyotropic liquid crystals , 2006 .

[14]  Wei Zhou,et al.  True solutions of single-walled carbon nanotubes for assembly into macroscopic materials , 2009, Nature Nanotechnology.

[15]  W. Haase,et al.  Electrooptic and dielectric properties of ferroelectric liquid crystal/single walled carbon nanotubes dispersions confined in thin cells , 2009 .

[16]  S. Barman,et al.  Lyotropic liquid-crystalline solutions of high-concentration dispersions of single-walled carbon nanotubes with conjugated polymers. , 2009, Small.

[17]  E. Terentjev,et al.  Nematic elastomers with aligned carbon nanotubes: New electromechanical actuators , 2003, cond-mat/0309216.

[18]  J. Coleman,et al.  Multicomponent solubility parameters for single-walled carbon nanotube-solvent mixtures. , 2009, ACS nano.

[19]  Mark C. Hersam,et al.  Sorting carbon nanotubes by electronic structure using density differentiation , 2006, Nature nanotechnology.

[20]  S. Roth,et al.  Macroscopic-scale carbon nanotube alignment via self-assembly in lyotropic liquid crystals , 2009 .

[21]  Wei-Yu Lee,et al.  Effects of carbon nanosolids on the electro-optical properties of a twisted nematic liquid-crystal host , 2004 .

[22]  A. Rinzler,et al.  ALIGNED SINGLE-WALL CARBON NANOTUBES IN COMPOSITES BY MELT PROCESSING METHODS , 2000 .

[23]  Arjun G. Yodh,et al.  High Weight Fraction Surfactant Solubilization of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes in Water , 2003 .

[24]  Polarized Raman spectroscopy study of SWCNT orientational order in an aligning liquid crystalline matrix , 2005 .

[25]  Z. Gburski,et al.  Molecular dynamics and dielectric loss in 4-cyano-4-n-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) mesogene film surrounding carbon nanotube : Computer simulation , 2008 .

[26]  D. Zakharov,et al.  Double-walled carbon nanotubes fabricated by a hydrogen arc discharge method , 2001 .

[27]  Christian A. Martin,et al.  Electric field-induced aligned multi-wall carbon nanotube networks in epoxy composites , 2005 .

[28]  Myung Jong Kim,et al.  Macroscopic, Neat, Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Fibers , 2002, Science.

[29]  C. Zakri.  Carbon nanotubes and liquid crystalline phases , 2007 .

[30]  I. Kinloch,et al.  Mesogenicity drives fractionation in lyotropic aqueous suspensions of multiwall carbon nanotubes. , 2006, Nano letters.

[31]  Etienne Goovaerts,et al.  Efficient Isolation and Solubilization of Pristine Single‐Walled Nanotubes in Bile Salt Micelles , 2004 .

[32]  Sandeep Kumar,et al.  Aligned carbon nanotubes in the supramolecular order of discotic liquid crystals. , 2007, Angewandte Chemie.

[33]  Satish Kumar,et al.  Carbon nanotubes as liquid crystals. , 2008, Small.

[34]  N. Lebovka,et al.  Aggregation, percolation and phase transitions in nematic liquid crystal EBBA doped with carbon nanotubes , 2009 .

[35]  M. T. Martínez,et al.  Preparation and characterization of nematic polyazomethine/single-walled carbon nanotube composites prepared by in situ polymerization , 2009 .

[36]  Howard Wang,et al.  Shear-SANS study of single-walled carbon nanotube suspensions , 2005 .

[37]  M. Hersam.  Progress towards monodisperse single-walled carbon nanotubes. , 2008, Nature nanotechnology.

[38]  Kyung Ah Park,et al.  Anchoring a Liquid Crystal Molecule on a Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube , 2007 .

[39]  Eugene M. Terentjev,et al.  Photomechanical actuation in polymer–nanotube composites , 2005, Nature materials.

[40]  I. Kinloch,et al.  Macroscopic fibers of well-aligned carbon nanotubes by wet spinning. , 2008, Small.

[41]  Chi-Yen Huang,et al.  Electrooptical Properties of Carbon-Nanotube-Doped Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal Cell , 2006 .

[42]  Seiji Akita,et al.  RAPID COMMUNICATION: Orientation and purification of carbon nanotubes using ac electrophoresis , 1998 .

[43]  Jie Liu,et al.  Growth of millimeter-long and horizontally aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes on flat substrates. , 2003, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[44]  Young Hee Lee,et al.  Electrical-field effect on carbon nanotubes in a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell , 2005 .

[45]  R. Smalley,et al.  Magnetically aligned single wall carbon nanotube films: preferred orientation and anisotropic transport properties , 2003 .

[46]  K. Novoselov,et al.  Graphene-based liquid crystal device. , 2008, Nano letters (Print).

[47]  C. Roland,et al.  Liquid-crystal phases of capped carbon nanotubes , 2001 .

[48]  Liming Dai,et al.  Patterned Growth and Contact Transfer of Well-Aligned Carbon Nanotube Films , 1999 .

[49]  Robert M Shelby,et al.  Sequence-independent helical wrapping of single-walled carbon nanotubes by long genomic DNA. , 2006, Nano letters.

[50]  O. Yaroshchuk,et al.  Effect of electrooptical memory in suspensions of carbon nanotubes in liquid crystals , 2009 .

[51]  A. Blume,et al.  Influence of poly(l-lysine) on the structure of dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol/water dispersions studied by X-ray scattering , 2007, European Biophysics Journal.

[52]  Chi-Yen Huang,et al.  Comment on “Electric-field effect on carbon nanotubes in a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell” [Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 263110 (2005)] , 2006 .

[53]  T Salditt,et al.  An inverted hexagonal phase of cationic liposome-DNA complexes related to DNA release and delivery. , 1998, Science.

[54]  Olivier Roubeau,et al.  Solutions of negatively charged graphene sheets and ribbons. , 2008, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[55]  Wenhui Song,et al.  Size‐Dependence and Elasticity of Liquid‐Crystalline Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes , 2008 .

[56]  S. H. Lee,et al.  Effects of Carbon Nanotubes on Nematic Backflow in a Twisted Nematic Liquid-Crystal Cell , 2007 .

[57]  P. Poulin,et al.  Phase behavior of nanotube suspensions: from attraction induced percolation to liquid crystalline phases , 2006 .

[58]  M. Zheng,et al.  DNA-assisted dispersion and separation of carbon nanotubes , 2003, Nature materials.

[59]  Wei-Yu Lee,et al.  Suppression of field screening in nematic liquid crystals by carbon nanotubes , 2006 .

[60]  E. Campbell,et al.  Electric field aligned growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes ☆ , 2004 .

[61]  Yudong Huang,et al.  Synthesis, structure and properties of carbon nanotube/poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) composite fibres , 2006 .

[62]  O. Zhou,et al.  Alignment of nematic liquid crystals using carbon nanotube films , 2006 .

[63]  Piero Morales,et al.  Liquid crystal–carbon nanotube dispersions , 2005 .

[64]  T. Lubensky,et al.  Nematic nanotube gels. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[65]  Rajesh K. Saini,et al.  Phase Behavior and Rheology of SWNTs in Superacids , 2004 .

[66]  N. Lebovka,et al.  Dispersions of Carbon Nanotubes in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals , 2009 .

[67]  J. Lagerwall,et al.  Current topics in smectic liquid crystal research. , 2006, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry.

[68]  Chi-Yen Huang,et al.  Electrooptical Responses of Carbon Nanotube-Doped Liquid Crystal Devices , 2005 .

[69]  S. D. Hudson,et al.  Self-assembly of ordered nanowires in biological suspensions of single-wall carbon nanotubes. , 2009, ACS nano.

[70]  Andre K. Geim,et al.  Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films , 2004, Science.

[71]  M. Maugey,et al.  Liquid Crystals of DNA‐Stabilized Carbon Nanotubes , 2005 .

[72]  J. Coleman,et al.  Debundling of single-walled nanotubes by dilution: observation of large populations of individual nanotubes in amide solvent dispersions. , 2006, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[73]  N. Clark,et al.  Faster electro-optical response characteristics of a carbon-nanotube-nematic suspension , 2007 .

[74]  Ran Liu,et al.  Temperature-mediated growth of single-walled carbon-nanotube intramolecular junctions. , 2007, Nature materials.

[75]  M. Maugey,et al.  Liquid crystal behavior of single-walled carbon nanotubes dispersed in biological hyaluronic acid solutions. , 2007, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[76]  I. Khoo,et al.  Supra-nonlinear photorefractive response of single-walled carbon nanotube- and C60-doped nematic liquid crystal , 2003 .

[77]  S. Kim,et al.  Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Thermotropic Liquid Crystal Copolyester Nanocomposites , 2009 .

[78]  M. Burghard,et al.  Polarized raman spectroscopy on isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes. , 2000, Physical review letters.

[79]  Piero Morales,et al.  Aligning and Reorienting Carbon Nanotubes with Nematic Liquid Crystals , 2004 .

[80]  Giusy Scalia,et al.  Alignment of carbon nanotubes in thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals. , 2010, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry.

[81]  Kenneth A. Smith,et al.  Controlled deposition of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes on chemically functionalized templates , 1999 .

[82]  Nematic Anchoring on Carbon Nanotubes , 2009, 0907.4455.

[83]  Lin Li,et al.  Specific Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes for Advanced Polymer Nanocomposites , 2009 .

[84]  K. Iakoubovskii.  Techniques of aligning carbon nanotubes , 2009 .

[85]  Christophe Blanc,et al.  Anisotropic thin films of single-wall carbon nanotubes from aligned lyotropic nematic suspensions. , 2008, Nano letters.

[86]  A. Matsuyama.  Theory of binary mixtures of a rodlike polymer and a liquid crystal. , 1996, The Journal of chemical physics.

[87]  J. Coleman,et al.  Spontaneous debundling of single-walled carbon nanotubes in DNA-based dispersions , 2007 .

[88]  L. Q. Amaral,et al.  Nematic domain in the sodium lauryl sulfate/water/decanol system , 1988 .

[89]  M. Dresselhaus,et al.  Structure-Based Carbon Nanotube Sorting by Sequence-Dependent DNA Assembly , 2003, Science.

[90]  K. R. Atkinson,et al.  Strong, Transparent, Multifunctional, Carbon Nanotube Sheets , 2005, Science.

[91]  F. Hung.  Quadrupolar particles in a nematic liquid crystal: effects of particle size and shape. , 2009, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[92]  P. van der Schoot,et al.  Alignment of carbon nanotubes in nematic liquid crystals. , 2008, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[93]  Y. Gogotsi,et al.  Field controlled nematic-to-isotropic phase transition in liquid crystal–carbon nanotube composites , 2008 .

[94]  T. Ebbesen,et al.  Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Lipid Derivatives on Carbon Nanotubes , 2003, Science.

[95]  S. K. Prasad,et al.  Understanding the observation of large electrical conductivity in liquid crystal-carbon nanotube composites , 2009 .

[96]  Alan H. Windle,et al.  Nematic Liquid Crystallinity of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes , 2003, Science.

[97]  W. I. Milne,et al.  Characterization of carbon nanotube–thermotropic nematic liquid crystal composites , 2008 .

[98]  M. Dresselhaus,et al.  Physical properties of carbon nanotubes , 1998 .

[99]  H. Gaub,et al.  Direct Visualization of Surfactant Hemimicelles by Force Microscopy of the Electrical Double-Layer , 1994 .

[100]  A. Dawid,et al.  Dynamical and structural properties of 4-cyano-4-n-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) molecules adsorbed on carbon nanotubes of different chiralities: Computer simulation , 2009 .

[101]  Haesik Yang,et al.  Rational design of amphiphilic polymers to make carbon nanotubes water-dispersible, anti-biofouling, and functionalizable. , 2008, Chemical communications.

[102]  Germano S. Iannacchione,et al.  Carbon Nanotube Dispersed Liquid Crystal: A Nano-Electromechanical System and Non-volatile Memory Effect , 2008 .

[103]  R. Smalley,et al.  Synthesis, Structure, and Properties of PBO/SWNT Composites & , 2002 .

[104]  Wenhui Song,et al.  Isotropic−Nematic Phase Transition of Dispersions of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes , 2005 .

[105]  M. Yumura,et al.  Polymer Composites of Carbon Nanotubes Aligned by a Magnetic Field , 2002 .

[106]  Wei Lee,et al.  Scientific duo of carbon nanotubes and nematic liquid crystals , 2009 .

[107]  R. Dabrowski,et al.  Antiferroelectric liquid crystals with induced intermediate polar phases and the effects of doping with carbon nanotubes , 2007 .

[108]  Jan P. F. Lagerwall,et al.  Nanotube Alignment Using Lyotropic Liquid Crystals , 2007 .

[109]  Howard Wang.  Dispersing carbon nanotubes using surfactants , 2009 .

[110]  Shigeo Maruyama,et al.  Growth process of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes , 2005 .

[111]  K. Yoshikawa,et al.  DNA Dissolves Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes in Water , 2003 .

[112]  Micah J. Green,et al.  Modeling the phase behavior of polydisperse rigid rods with attractive interactions with applications to single-walled carbon nanotubes in superacids. , 2009, The Journal of chemical physics.

[113]  L. Onsager.  THE EFFECTS OF SHAPE ON THE INTERACTION OF COLLOIDAL PARTICLES , 1949 .

[114]  Amitesh Maiti,et al.  Bandgap engineering with strain , 2003, Nature materials.

[115]  Qingwen Li,et al.  Ordering in a droplet of an aqueous suspension of single-wall carbon nanotubes on a solid substrate. , 2010, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[116]  R. Smalley,et al.  Isotropic-nematic phase transition of single-walled carbon nanotubes in strong acids. , 2006, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[117]  Shigeo Maruyama,et al.  Growth of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube films on quartz substrates and their optical anisotropy , 2004 .

[118]  K. Hata,et al.  Water-Assisted Highly Efficient Synthesis of Impurity-Free Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes , 2004, Science.

[119]  H. Shirai,et al.  Organization of single-walled carbon nanotubes wrapped with liquid-crystalline π-conjugated oligomers , 2009 .

[120]  S. Iijima.  Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon , 1991, Nature.

[121]  O. Regev,et al.  Phase behavior and shear alignment in SWNT-surfactant dispersions. , 2008, Small.

[122]  A. Ismach,et al.  Orthogonal self-assembly of carbon nanotube crossbar architectures by simultaneous graphoepitaxy and field-directed growth. , 2006, Nano letters.

[123]  Shaoqin Gong,et al.  Reversible Infrared Actuation of Carbon Nanotube–Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Nanocomposites , 2008 .

[124]  R. Zentel,et al.  Solubilisation of multi walled carbon nanotubes by alpha-pyrene functionalised PMMA and their liquid crystalline self-organisation. , 2008, Chemical communications.

[125]  J. Coleman,et al.  Exfoliation in ecstasy: liquid crystal formation and concentration-dependent debundling observed for single-wall nanotubes dispersed in the liquid drug γ-butyrolactone , 2007 .

[126]  I. Dierking,et al.  Magnetically steered liquid crystal-nanotube switch , 2005 .

[127]  Davide Marenduzzo,et al.  The depletion attraction: an underappreciated force driving cellular organization , 2006, The Journal of cell biology.

[128]  S. Roth,et al.  Carbon nanotubes in liquid crystals as versatile functional materials , 2007 .

[129]  R. Krupke,et al.  Separation of Metallic from Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes , 2003, Science.

[130]  K. Ewert,et al.  Cationic liposome–DNA complexes: from liquid crystal science to gene delivery applications , 2006, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[131]  Xia Xin,et al.  Incorporation of carbon nanotubes into a lyotropic liquid crystal by phase separation in the presence of a hydrophilic polymer. , 2010, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[132]  O. Regev,et al.  Shear-induced ordering of micellar arrays in the presence of single-walled carbon nanotubes. , 2008, Chemical communications.

[133]  D. Mihailovic,et al.  Self-Assembly of Subnanometer-Diameter Single-Wall MoS2 Nanotubes , 2001, Science.

[134]  Michael D. Lynch,et al.  Organizing Carbon Nanotubes with Liquid Crystals , 2002 .

[135]  J. Rogers,et al.  High-performance electronics using dense, perfectly aligned arrays of single-walled carbon nanotubes. , 2007, Nature nanotechnology.

[136]  S. H. Lee,et al.  Effects of carbon nanotubes on electro-optical characteristics of liquid crystal cell driven by in-plane field , 2007 .