Homogeneous, Coaxial Liquid Crystal Domain Growth from Carbon Nanotube Seeds

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 3; no. 12; pp. 1665 - 1669
• Main Authors: Mrozek, Randy A, Kim, Byeong-Su, Holmberg, Vincent C, Taton, T. Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 01-12-2003
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Liquid crystals; Materials science; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanotubes; Organic polymers; Orientational order of liquid crystals; electric and magnetic field effects on order; Physicochemistry of polymers; Physics; Properties and characterization; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Structure, morphology and analysis; Differential scanning calorimetry; Atomic force microscopy; Nucleation; Oxazole polymer; Carbon nanotubes; Experimental study; Liquid crystals; Polarized light; Alignment; Nanocomposites; Anisotropy; Ordering; Kinetics; Nanostructured materials; Organic compounds
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl0347738

We have developed a general method for aligning anisotropic materials by using carbon nanotubes to influence order in the surrounding material. Specifically, we have shown that carbon nanotubes seed the formation of oriented domains in a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP). Using polarized light microscopy, we have observed that the molecular alignment in these large (10−100 μm long) domains is homogeneous and controlled by the direction of the nanotube nucleus. The kinetic nature of this nucleation process was verified by differential scanning calorimetry. The coupling of preferential nucleation and controlled seed orientation may allow bulk LCP materials to be aligned by simply preorganizing a small number of dispersed nanotube seeds. We expect that this work will aid in the development and application of macroscopically ordered nanostructured composite materials.