Advanced Materials, Vol.19, No.3, 359-359, 2007
Nanotube alignment using lyotropic liquid crystals
A new method for the successful alignment of carbon nanotubes is presented. An aqueous lyotropic nematic liquid-crystal phase acts as a self-organizing template to align and disperse the nonfunctionalized nanotubes simultaneously, and the success of the method is confirmed through Raman spectroscopy analysis (see figure). Ibis work could be extended to allow tailoring of the alignment for specific purposes and properties, using different Iyotropic liquid crystals.